Before he was a legend, Rembrandt was just a middle aged man with a mortgage. And a messy, fascinating life inside these very walls for nearly 20 years from 1639 to 1658.
This canal-side townhouse, now the Rembrandt House Museum, is where masterpieces were dreamed up, debts piled high, and one of the world’s greatest artists lived, loved, and struggled.
It’s one thing to see a Rembrandt painting. Go to the Rijksmuseum for that.
It’s another to stand in the rooms where the magic actually happened. This museum brings you closer to the man behind the masterpieces. You can see how he lived in good times and bad.
The house was the birthplace of his son Titus and where his beloved first wife Saskia died.
Thanks to a detailed inventory taken when Rembrandt declared bankruptcy, the house is meticulously recreated with the same kinds of period furniture, tools, paintings (some by pupils) and objects he once owned.
Rembrandt had to sell everything—lock, stock, and etching press. But the list gave curators a rare chance to rebuild his world almost exactly as it was.
One original thing it does have? The world’s largest collection of the artist’s engravings. Only a few are on display at once, under protective coverings, because of their fragility.
In this guide, I’ll give you an overview of the museum layout, describe what you’ll see, and share practical tips to make your visit smooth.
Museum Layout & Quick Tips
The floor plan is laid out this way:
- Basement: Kitchen
- Ground Floor: Entrance Room, Anteroom, Small Office, Grand Salon
- Mezzanine: half floor with Print Room
- First Floor: Rembrandt’s large art studio and curiosity cabinet
- Second Floor: Pupil’s studio. There may be live demonstrations. You can pick up a paintbrush and palettes and make like Rembrandt.
- Third Floor (Attic): Etching Room and Epilogue Room
Tips:
- You’ll need to pre-book a timed entry ticket for this popular museum.
- A free audio guide is included and you’ll need it to get his life story.
- There are steep Dutch style stairs, but also an elevator.
- The tour takes about one hour.
- There’s nowhere to sit down except for a bench in the attic.
>>> Click here to pre-book a museum ticket
Mini Biography of Rembrandt
Rembrandt van Rijn was born in 1606. Though pushed to go into law, he gave up his university training to focus on art.
At age 33, in 1639, Rembrandt moved into the a stately brick manor house in Amsterdam. Though he was successful by then, he still had to borrow a considerable sum to pay for it.
At that moment, the artist had it all: the woman he loved, a successful career, and a luxurious home.
Plus, Amsterdam was a great place to be. Business was booming. The city’s guilds and civic guards commissioned expensive group portraits like The Night Watch.
Rembrandt painted biblical scenes as well, labored away in engraving, and used his wife as a model for portraits. He was likewise a technical innovator.
Rembrandt was drawn to the raw, imperfect side of life. The marks left by experience, the overlooked and undignified moments that most artists avoided.
He portrayed everything from incontinence to homelessness with unflinching honesty. He was driven by a need to capture life in its full, unfiltered reality. He refused to idealize.
Rembrandt doesn’t monumentalize anything either. He makes you feel the story. His gods are people, in the end.
Nowhere is this more powerful than in his self-portraits. They track his evolution from ambitious youth to humbled old man.
You may not know it (I didn’t), but Rembrandt was also an avid art collector. But it eventually landed him in hot water. He had expensive tastes.
For one thing, Rembrandt had a cabinet of curiosities. These collections of rare and exotic artifacts were fairly common among the wealthy.
Eventually, though, his break from tradition didn’t please his self-important patrons. To compensate for his spending, Rembrandt took in scores of pupils.
He even occasionally passed off their work as his own. These paintings are now referred to as “School of Rembrandt.”
In 1642, Rembrandt painted what many consider his greatest masterpiece, The Night Watch. Now considered an icon of realism, it was derided in its day.
That same year, Rembrandt’s beloved wife Saskia died in the house, after losing 3 of her 4 children. Only Rembrandt’s son, Titus, survived. The artist’s productivity dropped off.
Knowing of his fondness for women and his profligacy with money, Saskia’s will stipulated that he could inherit her fortune only if he never married again.
Rembrandt had two subsequent relationships — one with Geertje Dircx, his maid and son’s nanny, and anther with Hendrickje Stoffels, mother of his daughter, Cornelia. Both ended tragically.
After this, Rembrandt received fewer commissions. He took out substantial loans, beginning to underwrite his debts with promises for future commissions.
The cycle repeated. The noose tightened. By 1655, Rembrandt was all but broke.
At age 51, the artist was forced to hawk his own art collection. It sold for mere pennies.
A year later, in 1658, he would lose his home in the city and move to a more modest rental house in the Jordan neighborhood.
There, he basically painted for his own satisfaction, turning out some of his most compelling portraits. In 1665, he produced the luminous The Jewish Bride, with its impressionistic background, and The Sampling Officials (both in the Rijksmuseum).
His long-time companion Hendrickje died of the plague in 1663. Titus died in early 1669.
Rembrandt died later that same year at age 63. No one knows why; there is no record of his illness. Maybe it was from grief?
The artist was buried in a rented, unmarked pauper’s grave, an ignoble ending for such a great painter. There isn’t even a marker that can be found today.
But, as fate would have it, his body wasn’t even cold in the ground before his resurrection was underway.
At the time of his death, Rembrandt was largely out of fashion. His style — rough brushwork, emotional realism, and unidealized subjects — had fallen out of favor. Only the smoother, more polished look was in vogue.
By the 18th century, however, collectors across Europe once again began to value Rembrandt’s artworks for their expressive power. By the mid-18th century, his prints were widely collected. Connoisseurs were praising him as a master of light and psychological depth.
In the 19th century, Romantic and later Realist painters saw him as a kindred spirit. He was someone who embraced imperfection and truth over beauty.
By the time of the full-on Rembrandt revival in the 19th century, especially during the 1850s–80s, his reputation had soared. He was now seen as one of the greatest painters who ever lived.
Guide To Rembrandt House: What To See
Here’s what you’ll see, beginning in the basement and working your way to the top:
Kitchen
The kitchen was located in the basement. Rembrandt was never there of course.
This was the maid’s domain. The Rembrandts had two maids, Geertje Dircx and Hendricke Stoffel. They would both play important roles in Rembrandt’s life.
The kitchen had running water, which was a real luxury in that era. You can see a “box bed” in the corner where the maid slept.
What did they eat? Mostly one pot stews, meats spitted over the fire, and mini pancakes. Rembrandt was loathe to stop work to eat, snacking on cheese and herring.
The bed looks about half size. But, back then, people slept in a half sitting position.
Laying down was viewed as life threatening. What would happen if blood rushed to your head, after all?
There are a few of Rembrandt’s personal objects on display here, which were excavated from the courtyard outside. You can even see what may have been Rembrandt’s pipes.
Off the kitchen is a small courtyard. Legend holds that Rembrandt painted The Night Watch there, under a roof. But there’s no solid evidence to back this up.
Entrance Hall
If you were visiting Rembrandt, you’d come through the front door and arrive in the Entrance Hall. It was a richly furnished space with a high ceiling and hung with paintings.
There’s paintings by Rembrandt’s teacher, Pieter Lastman, and one by an unknown pupil.
Anteroom
From the Entrance Hall, you head into the Anteroom. This is where Rembrandt wheeled and dealed, discussing commissions and negotiating prices.
Networking was a vital part of the business, but not something a curmudgeonly Rembrandt excelled at. His wife Saskia was more socially adept.
This room also has a box bed. This is where visitors would sleep.
There’s also a tiny office you can peer into. This is where Rembrandt wrote letters. Unfortunately, almost none of them survived.
Salon
This was Rembrandt’s living room and bedroom, where the artists would spend time with his family.
He actually painted Saskia in her bed in this room, so historians know exactly what it looked like. And you can see a copy of one of his beautiful portraits of her, where she looks almost regal.
After Saskia’s death, Rembrandt became involved with Geertje Dircx. But they had a major disagreement when Rembrandt refused to marry her.
She later sued him for breach of promise. That was a big mistake because she was then committed to a house of correction, likely with Rembrandt’s help.
When she left the house, Hendrickje Stoffels walked in and Rembrandt began an affair with her.
She became the artist’s second great love, and was with him for decades. She gave birth to his daughter Cornelia.
The pair never married because of Saskia’s will stipulation, and the church labeled their relationship a “whoredom.”
When Rembrandt’s fortunes took a turn for the worse, Hendrickje jumped in and started an art gallery.
Print Room
Rembrandt made over 300 etchings. They are all works of art in and of themselves. He printed them in editions ranging from ten to several dozen.
The museum has the world’s largest collection of them. But only several originals are on display at once, under covers, because of their fragility.
As you might expect, the etchings include a couple of his self-portraits: Wide-eyed and Open-Mouthed and Leaning on a Stone Sill.
Large Studio
The large studio was where Rembrandt painted. It’s perfect for this task because of the sunlight from the north-facing windows.
We know roughly what the studio looked like, thanks to a Rembrandt drawing of the space.
Rembrandt created dozens of paintings here until Saskia died. Then, bereft, he looked for a new style and only produced a few paintings a year for almost 10 years.
Rembrandt painted on linen canvases with hog’s bristle brushes. You can see replicas of them in the studio.
If you’re lucky, there may be a demonstration on how Rembrandt mixed his pigments
Curiosity Cabinet
Rembrandt was an avid collector. This cabinet was like his private museum. Unfortunately, it also helped bankrupt him.
You’ll see classical busts of Roman emperors, stuffed animals, seashells, swords and spears from Central Africa, etc.
His most precious possessions were in leather bound albums. These contained prints and drawings by the likes of Michelangelo, Titian, and Durer.
Rembrandt painted many of these objects. For example, he painted his bust of Homer in one of his most famous paintings, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pupil’s Studio
Rembrandt also gave art lessons in a small studio on the floor above his own.
There were no art academies in the 17th century. You learned your trade from a real painter.
Rembrandt’s pupils were on the advanced side. They wanted to learn tricks of the trade from the great master, not just how to draw.
There were hefty tuition fees, naturally, and Rembrandt was reputedly a strict teacher. Some of the pupils collaborated on Rembrandt paintings.
Attic Etching
The second floor of the museum houses an etching attic, where etching demonstrations are held every day.
Rembrandt used the machine to make several prints from one drawing. How did he do it?
Rembrandt created his etchings by drawing onto a metal plate coated with a waxy, acid-resistant ground using a sharp needle, exposing the metal beneath. He then submerged the plate in acid, which bit into the exposed lines to create grooves.
After cleaning the plate, he applied ink into the grooves, wiped the surface clean, and printed the image onto paper using a press.
Epilogue Room
In this room, you can see a reproduction of the estate inventory that was made when Rembrandt went bankrupt. It was thanks to this list that the museum exists!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam. You may find there’s other Netherlands travel guides useful:
- Tips for visiting the Netherlands
- Guide to the Anne Frank House
- Guide to the Rijksmuseum
- Guide to MOCO Amsterdam
- Guide to the Stedelijk Museum
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