Flemish painter and engraver of great eminence, was born in 1626, in a mill upon the banks of the Rhine, from whence he derived his name of Van Rhin. This master was born with a creative genius, which never attained perfection. It was said of him, that he would have invented painting, if he had not found it already discovered. Without study, without the assistance of any master, but by his own instinct, he formed rules, and a certain practical method for colouring; and the mixture produced the designed effect. Nature is not fet off to the greatest advantage in his pictures; but there is such a striking truth and simplicity in them, that his heads, particularly his portraits, seem animated, and rising from the canvas. He was fond of strong contrasts of light and shade. The light entered in his working-room only by a hole, in the manner of a camera obscura, by which he judged with greater certainty of his productions. This artist considered painting like the stage, where the characters do not strike unless they are exaggerated. He did not pursue the method of the Flemish painters of finishing his pieces. He sometimes gave his light such thick touches, that it seemed more like modelling than painting. A head of his has been shown, the nose of which was as thick of paint, as that which he copied from nature. He was told one day, that by his peculiar method of employing colours, his pieces appeared rugged and uneven—he replied, he was a painter, and not a dyer. He took a pleasure in dressing his figures in an extraordinary manner: with this view he had collected a great number of eastern caps, ancient armour, and drapery long since out of fashion. When he was advised to consult antiquity to attain a better taste in drawing, as his was usually heavy and uneven, he took his counsellor to the closet where these old vestments were deposited, saying, by way of derision, those were his antiques.

Rembrandt, like most men of genius, had many caprices. Being one day at work, painting a whole family in a single picture, word being brought him that his monkey was dead, he was so affected at the loss of this animal, that, without paying any attention to the persons who were fitting for their pictures, he painted the monkey upon the same canvas. This whim could not fail of displeasing those for whom the piece was designed; but he would not efface it, choosing rather to lose the sale of his picture.

This freak will appear still more extraordinary in Rembrandt, when it is considered that he was extremely avaricious; which vice daily grew upon him. He practised various stratagems to sell his prints at a high price. The public were very desirous of purchasing them, and not without reason. In his prints the same taste prevails as in his pictures; they are rough and irregular, but picturesque. In order to heighten the value of his prints, and increase their price, he made his son sell them as if he had purloined them from his father; others he exposed at public sales, and went thither himself in disguise to bid for them; sometimes he gave out that he was going to leave Holland, and settle in another country. These stratagems were successful, and he got his own price for his prints. At other times he would print his plates half finished, and expose them to sale; he afterwards finished them, and they became fresh plates. When they wanted retouching, he made some alterations in them, which promoted the sale of his prints a third time, though they differed but little from the first impressions.

His pupils, who were not ignorant of his avarice, one day painted some pieces of money upon cards; and Rembrandt no sooner saw them, than he was going to take them up. He was not angry at the pleasantry; but it had no effect in checking his avarice. He died in 1674.