The Rembrandt House Museum | Houses where Rembrandt lived

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Houses where Rembrandt lived

Between 1631 and 1635 Rembrandt lodged with Hendrick Uylenburgh, whose house stood on the corner of the Sint-Anthonisbreestraat and the Zwanenburgwal, right next to the present Rembrandt House. Rembrandt’s output rose sharply during this period, particularly the number of portraits he produced. We know of no portraits dating from his time in Leiden. During this period the style of his prints underwent a change. He also started to etch new subjects. Rembrandt met his future wife, Saskia, whom he married in 1634, in Uylenburgh’s house. Saskia van Uylenburgh was Hendrick’s niece.

Uylenburgh’s house was in an artists’ quarter. The artists who lived in this part of town included Cornelis van der Voort, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, Jan Tengnagel and the history painter Pieter Lastman, with whom Rembrandt studied for six months in about 1625.

The close collaboration with Uylenburgh came to an end in 1635. In that year Rembrandt moved into a rented house in the Nieuwe Doelenstraat. Not long afterwards, he moved again to a house in the Zwanenburgerstraat. In January 1639 he bought a house in the Breestraat, the present Rembrandt House. He was to live there for almost twenty years.