1606: Dutch Master

Rembrandt is born in Leiden, The Netherlands

Dutch painter Rembrandt Van Rijn created beautiful paintings, including many naturalistic self-portraits. Even during his twenties, Rembrandt’s skills as a portrait painter were in great demand for his delicate attention to light and shadows, which he used to shape his subjects’ features.

He gained attention for works like the slightly gruesome The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, in which a doctor uses a corpse to show his students how human arm muscles work. Rembrandt sought to paint the most realistic-looking people and places he possibly could, whether they were richly hued paintings of everyday life in Holland or intricate etches of Biblical images.