t. In inventing
costumes for their own portraits, he gave his exuberant fancy free
play: in gorgeous embroidered robes, waving plumes, and priceless gems
they arrayed themselves, until even the resources of his collection
were exhausted: the same rich mantle, the same jewels appear, and
reappear in picture after picture.

Rembrandt's short married years were happy, though not without their
sorrows. Of Saskia's five children, four died in infancy; the fifth,
Titus, was not a year old when, in 1642, the end came for Saskia, and
Rembrandt, who had just reached his thirty-seventh year, was left in
his great house alone with an infant son and his pupils. Her
confidence in him is shown by her will, in which the inheritance of
Titus is left in the father's charge, though already Rembrandt's
affairs must have given signs of coming complications.

[Illustration: Connoisseurs at Rembrandt's Studio.]

Much of his best work remained to be done, but after Saskia's death
his worldly fortunes and his popularity never again touched such
high-water mark. The reason for this is not far to seek. During all
these years, Rembrandt's powers had matured, his methods broadened,
and his individuality strengthened. With each new canvas, his
originality became more conspicuous. It was not only that the world of
nature, and not imagination, supplied his models. Many of the Dutch
painters now were no less realists than he. It was not only that he
solved certain problems of _chiaro oscuro_, there were men, like
Lievens, who were as eager as he in the study of light and shadow. But
Rembrandt brought to his every experiment an independence that
startled the average man. He painted well because he saw well. If no
one else saw things as he did, the loss was theirs. But he paid for
his keener vision; because he did not paint like other artists, his
methods were mistrusted. To be misunderstood is the penalty of genius.
The picture which, of all his work, is now the most famous, marks the
turn in the tide of his affairs. Shortly before Saskia's death, he had
been commissioned to paint a portrait group of Banning Cock and the
military company which he commanded. These portrait groups of the
military corporations rivalled in popularity the "Lessons in Anatomy."
Each member, or officer, paid to be included in the composition, and,
as a rule, a stiff, formal picture, with each individual posed as for
a photograph, was the result. Rembrandt, apparently, was