Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam
Inside Rembrandt's former residence and studio, you can now admire over 250 of his etchings. A changing selection is on permanent display in the museum. The collection also includes paintings of his predecessors, contemporaries and students. It provides a remarkable overview of Rembrandt's life and his work.
This house was built in 1607 in the St-Anthonisbreestraat, which was the original name of this street. The street name was later changed into Jodenbreestraat. In 1639 Rembrandt purchased this house for 13.000 guilders, which at that time was a large amount of money.
While he lived here, he painted some of his best works, which of course included the top piece of the Nachtwacht (Nightwatch). Although he earned large sums of money, he was not able to pay off the mortgage on his house, and he was even forced to move to a small rental house. His debts still had to be paid off, so his entire property was inventoried in 1656. Two years later he was declared bankrupt and the house was put under auction.
Different families have lived in this house from this period until the end of the nineteenth century. They have all made their alterations to it.
The city council purchased the building in 1907, which was then in a very bad state. They decided to hand it over to a foundation: Stichting Rembrandthuis. This foundation restored the building with a contemporary touch. Queen Wilhelmina reopened the building in 1911.
At the end of the nineties, the foundation purchased a piece of land situated next to the Rembrandthuis. On this land they built an extra wing to house two exhibition halls. At the same time they also restored the original building. They even managed to bring it back to its former glory of the 17th century, using old documents. The inventory list that was set up when Rembrandt was declared bankrupt in 1656, turned out to be of great value for this restoration. From this list they could make up how the building used to be divided and what the function was of all the different rooms. When this restoration was finished in 1999, the Rembrandthuis could again open its doors to public.
