Poor Rembrandt! (Sort of)
Rembrandt self-portrait circa 1665, hanging in London’s Kenwood House as part of the Iveagh bequest. (Photo: Jonathan Bailey)
He is an artist known for breaking the rules, and possibly the law, according to “Rembrandt the Bankrupt Printmaker: His Life and Bankruptcy Proceedings of 1656,” an adventure in painting and jurisprudence delivered in the ceremonial courtroom of the U.S. District Courthouse on First Street in Los Angeles April 30. Flanked by majestic oil paintings of chief judges past, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge the Hon. Scott C. Clarkson mixed human interest with legal insight as he walked through the circumstances that took Rembrandt van Rijn from miller’s son to art world star whose livin’ large lifestyle pushed him to insolvency and turbulence during a late period that produced some of his greatest work.
I’ve heard continuing legal educational requirement classes can be a snooze, but this one was a real barn burner. It had everything — art, politics, sexual intrigue and insightful exploration of the antecedents to 11 U.S.C., the United States Bankruptcy Code. The program promised ”secret corporations, asset auctions, and jurisdictional issues not seen since Stern v. Marshall,“ and the presentation delivered, picking up where 2003‘s The Girl with the Pearl Earring left off.
Spoiler alert! It is quite possible that our de novo review found Rembrandt a bad faith debtor by today’s standards. In the painter’s own time, things were a bit more complicated. Rembrandt had a real estate transfer deemed fraudulent, a judgment that was later overturned. But more about that later! From an early age, Rembrandt was taking the legal world by storm. By 1630 he was doing court paintings at The Hague, his masterful command of light and shadow making him much in demand.
Rembrandt further ensured his commercial success when in 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, cousin to a successful art dealer. He showered her with jewels and in 1639 he bought a fancy Amsterdam townhouse on Jodenbreestraat for fl. 13,000. Now the Rembrandt House Museum, it’s where his troubles — financial and personal — began. Their first three children did not survive infancy, but in 1641 the van Rijns produced an heir, Titus, the year before Saskia’s death.
The studio on Jodenbreestraat, now part of Amsterdam’s Rembrandt House Museum.
Since Rembrandt’s family life was as intertwined with his financial collapse as his art and finances, Judge Clarkson dissected each, expounding on the realism the painter brought to his work, and the humor frequently attached to his self-portraits. He critiqued what is arguably Rembrandt’s most famous work, The Night Watch, discussing how the artist’s unconventional approach to a military portrait — stressing composition and active energy over flattering likenesses — put him in disfavor. Although the record is unclear as to the reception of The Night Watch, which was completed in 1642, the same year his wife died, there is no dispute that Rembrandt’s art changed in the decade that followed. He stopped painting portraits and devoted a good deal of time to etchings.
Despite Rembrandt’s esteemed place in the history books, in his day, “he never enjoyed the institutional security of, say, Rubens,” the art historian Robert Hughes wrote in The Guardian in 2006, on the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth. “He was not totally reliable when it came to turning out big official paintings and satisfying the needs and vanity of major patrons, though he could certainly perform impressively when required to: one striking piece of evidence for this is his masterpiece The Night Watch, that extraordinary re-thinking of the genre in which Dutch painters were expected to excel, the group portrait of members of a board, a club or a profession.”
Shortly after his wife’s death Rembrandt began a relationship with his son’s nanny, Geertje Dircx, which devolved into a breach of promise suit after he began having an affair with the housekeeper, Hendrickje Stoffels, with whom he had a daughter, Cornelia. In order to avoid paying Dircx, a “maintenance allowance” he had her committed to the Gouda house of correction. Terms of a stipend from his dead wife’s estate prevented him from marrying Stoffels, later deemed his common law wife.
His affairs in disarray, in 1656 the high-living artist petitioned for bankruptcy. As per Dutch law, the matter was referred to the local burgomaster (village master). A trustee was appointed by the Desolate Boedelskamer (Chamber of Insolvent Estates). The ensuing inventory of Rembrandt’s possessions for auction has “proved invaluable to art historians for its view of Rembrandt’s surroundings and as a measure of his wide-ranging interests,” it says in the Cambridge University Press edition Rembrandt’s Bankruptcy: The Artist, his Patrons and the Art Market in Seventeenth Century Netherlands (available new for $677 on Amazon).
Rembrandt’s Danaë, named for the mythological character pictured, mother of Perseus, was sold at the artist’s insolvency auction and today hangs in Russia’s Hermitage Museum.
Among his worldly goods: suits of armor, weaponry, antique costumes, ancient sculpture, shells and other natural artifacts, and more than 60 paintings by Rembrandt. Though three-quarters of them were considered “sub-prime,” there were a few gems that he was believed to have hung on to for either sentimental reasons, or in the case of one piece, “the large Danaë,” now in the Hermitage, because it was too grand to find a home. “Given that this is one of Rembrandt’s most magnificent paintings, it is not out of the question that he cherished it,” writes Paul Crenshaw in the above-mentioned book, adding, “but it may also have been difficult to sell because of its eight-by-ten-foot size.”
Simultaneous with the bankruptcy Rembrandt transferred the deed on his house to Titus through the Weeskamer (Orphan’s Chambers). This allowed the family to remain in the swanky abode until 1958. That year the Desolate Boedelskamer initiated fraudulent transfer litigation and succeeded in clawing back the asset from Titus, resulting in a sale for fl. 11,218 in 1659. But the real estate drama didn’t end there, Judge Clarkson explained. Rembrandt retained local attorney Louis Crayers to continue litigating to protect his son’s inheritance. Crayers had earlier been retained as trustee for the young Barush Spinoza (later renowned as a philosopher) after the Spinoza family’s own bankruptcy.
On Titus’ behalf, Crayers succeeded in having the disbursement of funds stayed, Judge Clarkson informed the audience, and in 1660 Crayers had the Desolate Boedelskamer’s award overturned. The result was proceeds from the sales, plus legal costs, were returned to Titus, then 24. The result, according to Judge Clarkson, is Rembrandt and his family got “a free house for 16 years,” given that Rembrandt only ever paid fl. 7,637 for the place, with roughly fl. 11,000 returned to Titus.
Rembrandt and Cornelia survived Stoffels, who died in 1663, and Titus, dead at age 27 as of 1668. Rembrandt died only 11 months later, age 63, and was buried in an unknown grave. Despite what seemed like ever burdensome travails, historians say Rembrandt produced some of his best work in those late years, including Bathsheba (1654), Syndics of the Cloth Guild (1661), The Jewish Bride (1665), and a masterful self-portrait now hanging in the Frick (1658).
As for the law, now, as then, the courts only grant bankruptcy protection to those deemed subject to misfortune, rather than opportunistic scheming. Likewise surviving through the ages is the custom of the honest debtor being freed from arrest, with a stay of lawsuits and seizure of personal belongings. One change: “In 16th century Netherlands, a shame statute required petitioner to stand before the steps of the town hall in underclothing for an hour a day for three successive days,” a tradition that has not survived.
“Rembrandt the Bankrupt Printmaker: His Life and Bankruptcy Proceedings of 1656” was presented by the Business Law Section Insolvency Law Committee of the California Lawyers Association. The event was hosted by the Honorable Neil W. Bason, United States Bankruptcy Judge, and made possible by the sponsorship of: Alston & Bird LLP; SulmeyerKupetz; Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney Association; Financial Lawyers Conference; The James T. King Bankruptcy American Inn of Court; Inland Empire Bankruptcy Forum; International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation; and Southern California Network Turnaround Management Association.
The Honorable Scott C. Clarkson, photographer and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge (center), joined by (from left) Insolvency Law Committee of the California Lawyers Association officer Cathy Ta, Esq.; Honorable Neil Bason, Bankruptcy Judge; Rebecca Winthrop, Esq., Les Kaufman, Esq. Photographed April 30, 2019 at the presentation on Rembrandt and bankruptcy law at the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo by Paula Parisi)
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