- His full name was Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn. His full name means Rembrant, son of Harmen, from the Rhine. After attending The Latin School in the Netherlands, he started using the Latin version of his name - Rembrandus Hermanni Leydensis, Leiden being the town where he was born. This is why his early works are signed "RHL". It was only later he started signing himself "Rembrandt." No-one knows why he added the "D" to his name.
- He married his agent's cousin. Hendrik van Uylenburgh helped Rembrandt get commissions early in his career. Rembrandt lived and worked in Uylenburgh’s house in Amsterdam, where he met his future wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh.
- He had five children, two boys and three girls. Only one outlived him. All three girls were named Cornelia. The first two Cornelias died in infancy. The third was born after his wife died - she was the daughter of his former maid, Hendrickje Stoffels, who'd become his lover. She was banned from receiving communion at her church because she had "committed the acts of a whore with Rembrandt the painter". Rembrandt himself wasn't told off by the church - because he wasn't a member.
- Although there is no evidence Rembrandt was ever a member of a church, the religious themes in his paintings suggest he had a deep faith. He also had all his children christened.
- Films sometimes portray Rembrandt as being born in poverty. That wasn't the case. His family was quite well off. His father was a miller and his mother was a baker's daughter. As an artist, Rembrandt did reasonably well financially from selling his paintings and as a teacher of art. He didn't always manage his money wisely, though, and declared himself bankrupt later in life, having to resort to selling his wife's grave.
- There's a story which says that Rembrandt once painted a monkey into a portrait he was painting of a wealthy family. The monkey was Rembrandt's pet, Puck, who died while he was working on the painting. The family hadn't asked for a monkey and demanded he paint over or remove it. Rembrandt refused, and lost the commission. Whether it's true, we don't know - nobody has ever found a Rembrandt painting with a monkey in it, but Rembrandt scholars believe it's the kind of thing he may well have done.
- His most famous painting is The Night Watch, although its original title was The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq. Experts later dubbed it The Night Watch because, in the 18th century it had got so dirty it looked like a night scene. When it was cleaned, it emerged that some of the characters in it were actually standing in bright sunlight. What we usually see isn't the complete painting, either. 20% of the canvas was trimmed off so it would fit in Amsterdam Town Hall when it was moved there in 1715. It's not true that Rembrandt's patrons hated the painting so much that it ended his career. People did like it, and he got commissions after it from the government and other important customers.
- Modern scientists have speculated that Rembrandt had vision problems - that due to his misaligned eyes, he was stereoblind, that is, would not have been able to see in 3D. For a painter, this would actually have been an advantage when he was recreating his subjects in 2D.
- Rembrandt was a big fan of selfies. He painted 90 portraits of himself, and would often paint himself into crowd scenes of his other works. He appears in The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Raising of the Cross, and, some believe, even The Night Watch.
- Should you happen to have a spare Rembrandt painting lying around, it could be worth a fortune. His paintings don't come up for sale very often. His Portrait Of A Lady, Aged 62, sold for a record £19.8million in 2000.
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