A Dutch masterpiece,
CAPTAIN WIM waits on the Singel canal in a tiny, Thirties wooden vessel. ‘It was the boat of a notary, who would negotiate contracts in the harbour,’ he says, proffering a glass of champagne.
The electric motor powers us silently through the city, along treelined embankments busy with bicycles, past colourful houseboats, beneath low bridges, offering an unfamiliar fish’s view of magnificent gabled mansions towering above.
Here and there, a heron perches on an ancient hoist beam used to lift merchandise and furniture into the building.
Our boat may have been transformed from working vessel into pleasure craft, but in this central area of Amsterdam, little has changed since the canals were dug and the impressive merchants’ mansions erected in the city’s 17th-century Golden Age.
Captain Wim points out the double-fronted house of Captain Cocq, the flamboyant central figure in Rembrandt’s celebrated oil painting The Night Watch. And as the city prepares for the celebrations to mark the 350th anniversary of the artist’s death, there has never been a better time to visit.
‘Amsterdam grew rich through trade, and a wealthy new merchant class was born in the 1600s,’ explains Nathalie, my guide at Rembrandt’s house, my first stop.
‘The population exploded from 50,000 to 200,000 as people flocked here in search of work. Rembrandt was one, profiting from this new middle class that wanted to build their own art collections.’
Within four years of arriving in Amsterdam in 1631, Rembrandt was the city’s leading portrait painter, his success enabling him to purchase a house to reflect his status — now the only Rembrandt museum in the world.
‘It cost 13,000 guilders in 1639 — a time when craftsmen earned just 250 guilders a year,’ says Nathalie. ‘Two-thirds was mortgaged — and Rembrandt went bankrupt in 1656. Thanks to the inventory of his goods put up for sale, we were able to recreate the house as it was.’
I wander through the sitting room, hung with paintings by the
contemporaries he admired; his bed — in a cupboard, as was the fashion — at one end.
‘No distinction was made between the living and sleeping areas,’ says Nathalie. ‘And beds were short, as people slept sitting up, so that the devil could not crawl into their mouths.’
HIS studio retains his aura. Here, Rembrandt broke the traditional mould of religious and mythological subjects to create new genres, grinding his pigments and dabbing colour on several canvases, in turn.
Best of all is the manifest cause of his bankruptcy: the
Kunstkammer art collection into which Rembrandt poured his wealth, buying statuary, exotica from the Indies, and reams of works by Durer, Raphael, Titian . . .
In a part of the city where Rembrandt once enjoyed country walks and etched the landscape, the Rijksmuseum is preparing for its year-long celebration of the artist, beginning in February with All The Rembrandts at the Rijksmuseum. The exhibition will feature 23 oil paintings, as well as over 360 works on paper.
As I stand before the portrait of Maria Trip, I can almost feel the coolness of her pearls, the textures of the lace, braid, and luminous black velvet of her dress.
So much for Protestant tenets of sobriety! Black was the most expensive pigment at the time, so that fabric which retained its dark hue was, paradoxically, indicative of the owner’s wealth — an irony that no doubt escaped Calvin.
With the twin pillars of his house and the Rijksmuseum to illuminate Rembrandt’s life and work, 17th-century Amsterdam acquires deeper significance. And from where I stay, the plush new Hotel TwentySeven on Dam Square, it is an easy walk to sites associated with the Master.
They include the residences of his wealthy patrons, on elegant Herengracht and Kloveniersburgwal, and the aforementioned Trip family mansion, whose decorative motifs reflect the family’s wealth through arms trading. You can also see the stone entrance to Brakke Grond — formerly a tavern where Rembrandt bought objects from sailors of the East India Company for his Kunstkammer: a passion which ultimately led to the town hall and the home of the office dealing with bankruptcies.
It was a sad end for this national treasure, who was buried as a poor man in Westerkerk — as a plaque informs us.
Today, Amsterdam still attracts artistic souls. As you stroll past vibrant art galleries and concept stores, you can’t help noticing a new whiff of creativity in the air.