, but it is pleasing to notice
that the Staalmeesters had not forgotten the great painter, who had long
lived in their neighbourhood.

[Plate 19. The Back of the Houses in the "Doelenstraat" in Amsterdam. ]

Plate 19. The Back of the Houses in the "Doelenstraat" in Amsterdam. The
narrow house in the middle, two windows wide, is, although rebuilt, the
one where Rembrandt lived in 1636. To the left, part of Messrs. Frederk
Muller & Co.'s aution and exhibition rooms.

[Plate 20. The Tower "Swyght-Utrecht" and the Backs of the Houses of the
"Doelenstraat" in Amsterdam.]

Plate 20. The Tower "Swyght-Utrecht" and the Backs of the Houses of the
"Doelenstraat" in Amsterdam. The third house from the tower must be the
one occupied by Rembrandt in 1636. After an engraving by van Meurs of
about 1660.

[Plate 21. The Old Exchange in Amsterdam. ]

Plate 21. The Old Exchange in Amsterdam. After an engraving by Cl. Jz.
Visscher.

To complete our survey of Rembrandt's dwellings in Amsterdam, we must
finally follow him on his retirement, when, owing to his bankruptcy, his
wonderful collection had been dispersed to the winds under the
auctioneer's hammer, and when he had to leave his large house, the court
allowing him to take only two stoves and some partitions in the attic. We
have therefore to cross the entire town in its width and repair to its
western extension, where he lived about ten years until his death, most of
this time in the company of his son Titus, and with his second wife
Hendrickje Stoffels, until her death in 1664. On examining the map of the
town and comparing the design of the new western quarters around the
Rozengracht with the remainder of the town, we observe an incongruity in
city planning, which calls for an explanation. The oldest part in the
centre faces the harbour and logically follows upwards the course of the
Amstel River; the lay-out of the canals in that part is in accordance
therewith, because they really are the former moats surrounding the
protecting walls incorporated in the town during its various extensions
from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The following plan of the
three canals, Heerengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht, the
beginning of which on the west side takes place in Rembrandt's time,
coincides with the fan-shaped plan of the town,