04/10/2026
Today, 4 October, we remember Rembrandt van Rijn, who died on this day in 1669, aged just 63.
It is difficult to imagine the man behind the paintings we now consider priceless.
Rembrandt had once been one of Amsterdam’s most celebrated artists. He lived in a beautiful house, collected art and antiquities obsessively, and enjoyed enormous success. (I highly recommend a visit when you’re in Amsterdam to this house 😍) But his extravagant spending and financial troubles eventually led to bankruptcy. His house and possessions were sold, and he was forced to move to a much poorer part of Amsterdam.
Then life took almost everything else from him.
His beloved partner, Hendrickje, died in 1663. His only surviving son, Titus, died in 1668, leaving Rembrandt largely alone in the final year of his life. His work was no longer as fashionable, yet he continued painting — perhaps with more honesty and freedom than ever before.
Look at his Self-Portrait at the Age of 63.
There is no attempt to flatter us, or himself. No grand costume, no theatrical pose. Just a face carrying a lifetime — grief, exhaustion, dignity, vulnerability… and somehow, still, an extraordinary presence.
He died in Amsterdam on 4 October 1669 and was buried four days later in a rented grave at Westerkerk. Even the location of that grave has since been lost.
And yet, centuries later, his eyes are still looking at us.
And that is one of the strange miracles of art:
the artist can disappear, the fortune can disappear, even the grave can disappear — but the work remains.
Rembrandt died poor.
But He did not die forgotten by history.
Photo from the National Gallery
London
August 2018
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