1 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,533 JUDY WOODRUFF: 2019 marks the 350th anniversary of the death of the Dutch master painter Rembrandt. 2 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:12,800 To celebrate his life and legacy, museums in the Netherlands are dedicating the entire 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,733 year to new exhibits showcasing his work. 4 00:00:16,733 --> 00:00:21,733 Jeffrey Brown traveled to Amsterdam, as part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas. 5 00:00:23,133 --> 00:00:27,066 JEFFREY BROWN: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn. 6 00:00:27,066 --> 00:00:32,066 Every day, thousands of visitors crowd into Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum to catch a glimpse 7 00:00:34,466 --> 00:00:37,833 of one of history's most celebrated art works, a masterpiece of storytelling, light and shadow, 8 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:41,766 on a mammoth scale. 9 00:00:41,766 --> 00:00:46,633 But we got our own after-hours look at it and the other works in the museum's extraordinary 10 00:00:47,833 --> 00:00:52,100 new exhibition titled All the Rembrandts. 11 00:00:52,100 --> 00:00:57,066 It's part of the Netherlands' celebrations commemorating the 350th anniversary of his 12 00:00:59,700 --> 00:01:02,500 death, and marks the first time this world-renowned museum has made its entire collection of Rembrandts 13 00:01:04,900 --> 00:01:06,933 open to the public. 14 00:01:06,933 --> 00:01:09,366 JANE TURNER, Rijksmuseum: This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it all out. 15 00:01:09,366 --> 00:01:12,200 JEFFREY BROWN: Jane Turner is curator of prints. 16 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,133 JANE TURNER: It's something you can just come back to over and over again, and each time 17 00:01:16,133 --> 00:01:19,433 you look, you will see something new and something different. 18 00:01:19,433 --> 00:01:24,433 JEFFREY BROWN: There are 22 paintings, including grand portraits of Dutch high society and 19 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,433 scenes from the Bible, 60 drawings, and more than 300 prints. 20 00:01:32,433 --> 00:01:36,100 They span his career, and show an artist unmatched at capturing the humanity in his subjects, 21 00:01:38,266 --> 00:01:43,266 even in sketches of daily life, like this one of a pancake-maker and some very hungry 22 00:01:44,733 --> 00:01:46,866 children. 23 00:01:46,866 --> 00:01:48,900 JANE TURNER: She looks a bit cynical, and she's thinking, you will get your pancake 24 00:01:48,900 --> 00:01:50,500 when I see the money. 25 00:01:50,500 --> 00:01:53,133 And the young kid -- it's brilliant. 26 00:01:53,133 --> 00:01:56,600 He's digging in his pocket and he's really, really digging. 27 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,233 And Rembrandt, he's managed -- he makes the leg bent a bit. 28 00:01:59,233 --> 00:02:01,333 JEFFREY BROWN: Right. 29 00:02:01,333 --> 00:02:05,200 JANE TURNER: And so you really feel that movement of trying to find his coin. 30 00:02:06,633 --> 00:02:07,866 JEFFREY BROWN: But this is a street scene, right? 31 00:02:07,866 --> 00:02:09,133 I mean, it's just something he... 32 00:02:09,133 --> 00:02:10,366 JANE TURNER: This is a street scene. 33 00:02:10,366 --> 00:02:11,900 This is something that he would have seen. 34 00:02:11,900 --> 00:02:13,966 But it's the brilliance with which he observes humanity. 35 00:02:13,966 --> 00:02:18,966 JEFFREY BROWN: The sketches also offer a glimpse into Rembrandt himself and his development 36 00:02:19,566 --> 00:02:21,066 as an artist. 37 00:02:21,066 --> 00:02:23,866 JANE TURNER: You see the artist thinking on paper. 38 00:02:23,866 --> 00:02:26,700 There are mistakes, and he doesn't try to cover it up. 39 00:02:26,700 --> 00:02:29,233 He's not doing it for somebody else or to sell. 40 00:02:29,233 --> 00:02:31,633 He does it for himself. 41 00:02:31,633 --> 00:02:36,633 And then you get the raw inside glimpse of what he thinks, what makes him laugh, what 42 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:39,333 makes him grieve, what makes him sad. 43 00:02:39,333 --> 00:02:42,800 JEFFREY BROWN: One of his main subjects was himself. 44 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:47,800 The exhibition opens with a roomful of self-portraits done throughout his life, smiling, frowning, 45 00:02:49,633 --> 00:02:51,666 young, and old. 46 00:02:51,666 --> 00:02:56,633 He used them, in part, to practice techniques that would come to embody his larger works. 47 00:02:58,666 --> 00:03:02,366 In other cases, they served as a statement to the outside world, one that at times had 48 00:03:02,966 --> 00:03:05,100 its critics. 49 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:05,766 JONATHAN BIKKER, Author, "Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel": They called him the first heretic 50 00:03:05,766 --> 00:03:07,800 in art history. 51 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:11,766 JEFFREY BROWN: Jonathan Bikker is curator of research here, and author of the new book 52 00:03:11,766 --> 00:03:14,266 "Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel." 53 00:03:14,266 --> 00:03:19,266 JONATHAN BIKKER: A number of them mentioned that he broke the rules of our art. 54 00:03:20,966 --> 00:03:22,233 JEFFREY BROWN: Which meant what? 55 00:03:22,233 --> 00:03:24,300 JONATHAN BIKKER: A variety of things. 56 00:03:24,300 --> 00:03:29,300 Some of the things they accused him of doing, we wouldn't think of as radical at all, for 57 00:03:30,666 --> 00:03:33,366 example, painting old wrinkled women, for example. 58 00:03:33,366 --> 00:03:38,366 What you were supposed to do was to select the best, the most beautiful things in nature, 59 00:03:40,166 --> 00:03:42,300 and improve upon that. 60 00:03:42,300 --> 00:03:43,966 Rembrandt didn't do that. 61 00:03:43,966 --> 00:03:48,333 For Rembrandt, this was the ideal playing field for light and dark. 62 00:03:50,300 --> 00:03:54,233 JEFFREY BROWN: For Bikker, the culmination of Rembrandt's achievement is the painting 63 00:03:54,233 --> 00:03:59,200 known as The Jewish Bride, a portrait of two lovers cast as the Old Testament's Isaac and 64 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,600 Rebecca. 65 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,600 JONATHAN BIKKER: This is the greatest painted ode to love that was ever made. 66 00:04:07,466 --> 00:04:08,400 JEFFREY BROWN: The greatest? 67 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:10,866 JONATHAN BIKKER: The greatest. 68 00:04:10,866 --> 00:04:14,000 JEFFREY BROWN: It also shows Rembrandt's technique, here, the use of thick layers of richly colored 69 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,000 paint. 70 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:18,966 JONATHAN BIKKER: It's modeled like clay. 71 00:04:18,966 --> 00:04:23,866 The high point of that technique is figuratively and literally in the sleeve of Isaac. 72 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,600 That is the thickest passage of paint in any 17th century painting produced in Europe. 73 00:04:33,366 --> 00:04:36,033 Every painting that Rembrandt did was a different experiment. 74 00:04:36,033 --> 00:04:41,000 JEFFREY BROWN: The celebration also sheds new light on Rembrandt the man, walking the 75 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 streets of Amsterdam, a celebrity artist in his own day, in one of the world's wealthiest 76 00:04:46,566 --> 00:04:48,633 cities. 77 00:04:48,633 --> 00:04:49,700 LIDEWIJ DE KOEKKOEK, Rembrandt House Museum: He lived on quite a large scale . He spent 78 00:04:49,700 --> 00:04:51,166 a lot of money. 79 00:04:51,166 --> 00:04:53,733 He was an avid collector of expensive and beautiful things. 80 00:04:53,733 --> 00:04:58,733 JEFFREY BROWN: Lidewij de Koekkoek is the director of the Rembrandt House Museum. 81 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,933 Rembrandt originally bought the house at the height of his fame near one of Amsterdam's 82 00:05:03,933 --> 00:05:08,933 iconic canals, and he used it as a living space, studio and workshop for his apprentices. 83 00:05:10,366 --> 00:05:12,700 LIDEWIJ DE KOEKKOEK: Here, his first wife, Saskia. 84 00:05:12,700 --> 00:05:17,700 JEFFREY BROWN: A new exhibition examines his social network, family, friends and colleagues. 85 00:05:19,666 --> 00:05:23,366 LIDEWIJ DE KOEKKOEK: We have this romantic idea about Rembrandt being very grumpy, being 86 00:05:23,366 --> 00:05:24,400 a lonely genius. 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:26,033 But he wasn't at all. 88 00:05:26,033 --> 00:05:30,066 I mean, he was obsessed by art, and art was foremost in his life. 89 00:05:30,066 --> 00:05:34,233 So he surrounded himself with people, and that is what the exhibition shows, people 90 00:05:34,233 --> 00:05:39,233 that shared his interest in art, that he could discuss art with, connoisseurs, pupils, artist 91 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:44,366 friends. 92 00:05:44,366 --> 00:05:46,400 JEFFREY BROWN: Well-connected, but not always easy. 93 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:50,766 ALETTE FLEISCHER, Art Historian: We, of course, think of him as a genius, but a genius with 94 00:05:50,766 --> 00:05:55,766 - - I don't know, with a temper, and opinionated, and not being always a very nice guy. 95 00:05:57,766 --> 00:06:01,366 JEFFREY BROWN: Alette Fleischer, an art historian, leads tours on Rembrandt in Amsterdam, and 96 00:06:03,300 --> 00:06:07,366 took us to the Royal Palace, site of one of the lowest points of his career. 97 00:06:09,366 --> 00:06:12,900 As the story goes, Rembrandt was commissioned to paint a portrait of the first century warrior 98 00:06:14,866 --> 00:06:18,033 Gaius Civilis, but his version, a moody and gritty depiction, wasn't what his benefactors 99 00:06:19,733 --> 00:06:21,233 were expecting. 100 00:06:21,233 --> 00:06:23,566 And they pulled the painting shortly after its completion. 101 00:06:23,566 --> 00:06:27,533 ALETTE FLEISCHER: The client wanted one thing, and he gave them another story. 102 00:06:27,533 --> 00:06:32,533 And he was completely sure that what he did was the right thing. 103 00:06:33,466 --> 00:06:35,966 His man was more truthfully felt. 104 00:06:35,966 --> 00:06:40,966 JEFFREY BROWN: While he continued to receive commissions, his later life proved turbulent. 105 00:06:42,933 --> 00:06:46,233 Overspending led Rembrandt to declare bankruptcy, and he spent the remainder of his life in 106 00:06:46,233 --> 00:06:48,233 relative poverty. 107 00:06:48,233 --> 00:06:53,033 He was buried in a rental grave here at the Westerkerk, his remains eventually moved and 108 00:06:53,700 --> 00:06:55,766 lost to history. 109 00:06:55,766 --> 00:06:59,200 JANE TURNER: It was a life filled with success, happiness, great tragedy. 110 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:04,200 JEFFREY BROWN: And it's all there in the artwork, notably in the portraits of his wife, Saskia. 111 00:07:05,866 --> 00:07:09,566 She gave birth to four children, but only one survived to adulthood. 112 00:07:09,566 --> 00:07:14,000 And she herself died just shy of her 30th birthday. 113 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,100 Curator Jane Turner: 114 00:07:16,100 --> 00:07:18,833 JANE TURNER: There are lovely portraits of her, but there are also a series of very sad 115 00:07:18,833 --> 00:07:23,833 drawings, when -- before or after she's lost one of her children. 116 00:07:25,166 --> 00:07:29,466 And this is gritty, everyday life, and poignant. 117 00:07:29,466 --> 00:07:34,466 And you can imagine him wanting to sit with her because she's sad or she's ill or whatever. 118 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,566 And while he sits with her, he draws her. 119 00:07:38,566 --> 00:07:41,566 JEFFREY BROWN: And it comes through that he loves her. 120 00:07:41,566 --> 00:07:43,000 JANE TURNER: He adores her. 121 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:45,066 He absolutely adores her. 122 00:07:45,066 --> 00:07:49,766 JEFFREY BROWN: For Jonathan Bikker, it's that ability that keeps Rembrandt relevant and 123 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:53,066 beloved three-and-a-half centuries after his death. 124 00:07:53,066 --> 00:07:56,766 JONATHAN BIKKER: We still have emotions in the 21st century. 125 00:07:56,766 --> 00:07:59,900 It's what defines us, basically, as human beings. 126 00:07:59,900 --> 00:08:04,900 So when we look at Rembrandt's paintings, but also his etchings and his drawings, we 127 00:08:06,066 --> 00:08:07,866 actually experience our own humanity. 128 00:08:07,866 --> 00:08:12,366 JEFFREY BROWN: The exhibition All the Rembrandts runs through June 10. 129 00:08:12,366 --> 00:08:16,866 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.