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Bottom of the pile
16
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
15/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Onno Blom
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Date:
September 8, 2020
Rembrandt van Rijn's early years are as famously shrouded in mystery as Shakespeare's, and his life has always been an enigma. How did a miller's son from a provincial Dutch town become the greatest artist of his age? How in short, did Rembrandt become Rembrandt? Seeking the roots of Rembrandt's genius, Onno Blom immersed himself in Leiden, the city in which Rembrandt was born in 1606 and where he spent his first twenty-five years.
What The Reviewers Say
Onno Blom’s biography of the young Rembrandt plays this game of artistic nature versus nurture to fascinating effect. It is a book that sets itself a conundrum: 'How did Rembrandt become Rembrandt?'.
Blom is an indefatigable researcher, and he has made every effort to inspect any scrap of paper that documents Rembrandt’s existence between his birth in 1606 and his final departure for Amsterdam in 1631.
The book’s strength does not lie in art historical investigation. It is at its best when describing the city of Leiden and providing a wide background panorama to Rembrandt’s early life.
Blom reconstructs a 17th-century Leiden that feels lived in by the painter and the author at once.
