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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on
15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, nowadays the
Netherlands. He was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritszoon
van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck. His family
was quite well-to-do; his father was a miller and his mother was
a baker's daughter. As a boy he attended Latin school and was
enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a
contemporary he had a greater inclination towards painting; he
was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van
Swanenburgh, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but
important apprenticeship of six months with the famous painter
Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden
in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan
Lievens. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them
Gerrit Dou. |
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