The San Diego Reader has a review of local show prints by Rembrandt and one of his students. W.S. Piero uses the review as an occasion to remind us of another financial crisis and the fate of the one of the world’s richest painters.
In the late 1640s and 1650s, the Netherlands’ prosperous Golden Age dimmed. Hundreds of businesses failed, and a major recession enfeebled the entire society. Even Rembrandt, renowned and rich, hit a wall, partly of his own construction. He’d bought the equivalent of a tycoon’s mansion beyond his means, spent lavishly to acquire an art collection he really couldn’t afford, and expected the art market to continue to reward his tireless genius. Instead, his many tuition-paying students flooded the market with work that competed with their master’s, his client list shrunk, he defaulted on his mortgage, and by 1656 he was bankrupt. […]. And Rembrandt’s painterly manner, so dominant for so long, was quietly falling from favor.
Rembrandt All Over (San Diego Reader)
