Art Talk: Rembrandt House Museum

One my first day in Amsterdam I went to three museums and the Rembrandt House Museum was one of them. I enjoy historical houses so the combination of historical house and art museum was great.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn was born in 1606 in Leiden, Netherlands and moved to Amsterdam in 1631 at the age of 25. He moved into this house eight years later, in 1639.

He lived in this house till 1958 when his financial troubles caused him to have to sell the house.

Rembrandt House Museum

The house and the museum entrance are located on a busy street in a very central location in Amsterdam. Interestingly, the house was built the same year Rembrandt was born, in 1606. The house was restored in the early 1900s and in 1911 the museum and house were opened.

The house occupied by Rembrandt 1639-1658

Next door is the entrance to the museum

The cost is very reasonable at $15 Euro and that includes a audio tour. I am a firm believer that knowing about the art is the best way to be able to enjoy and appreciate it. I go on tours anytime they are available!

Entrance Hall

You come into the house through the entrance hall. There are many paintings in this room.

Rembrandt was an art dealer as well as an artist and teacher.

Salon/ Living Room/ Bedroom

One of the things that I found most interesting is the size of the beds of the time. Here you see the box bed or closet-bed.

People had a fear of laying all the way down to sleep, they associated lying down with death, so they slept in a sitting position in this bed.

Kitchen

I thought they did a great job recreating the kitchen from the 1600s.

Here are some of the pictures that took while touring the house.

There was also a box bed in the kitchen, so the maid could tend to the fire.

Art work in the house

Here are some of the paintings and etchings that I took pictures of while touring the house.

Let's go upstairs

Art cabinet

Rembrandt bought and collected items for all over the world. There were lots of busts, a rock collection, a butterfly collection, pottery, books and manuscripts. There were also weapons like spears and a bow and arrow. It was a large and very diverse collection.

Large Art studio

This is Rembrandt's studio! It was so interesting going in and seeing what it could have looked like during his lifetime. It was very big.

In this picture shows the windows that let in the beautiful light.

Small Art Studio

This is where Rembrandt's students worked. There were partitions so multiple students could work at one time. It is thought that he had 40-50 students during his life time. Most came after having studied with another artist.

Hope you have enjoyed this tour of Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam. When I knew I was going to Amsterdam I knew I wanted to go to this house and museum. It was so interesting learning more about Rembrandt through his home and studio.

Sources:
360 degree tour of museum
Rembrandt Museum
Rembrandt- Wikipedia
Rembrandt House Museum- Wikipedia