landscape etchings--that dark,
spacious design called _The Three Trees_, and a perfect little drawing of
_Joseph Consoling the Prisoners_. The large plates inspired him with
reverence and profound admiration for Rembrandt's genius as an etcher, but
it was the smaller etchings that won his love and held it. He promised
himself, when he came into certain family monies of which there was some
prospect, that instead of buying an automobile, he would make himself the
proud owner of _The Three Trees_, _The Prodigal Son_, _Abraham's
Sacrifice_, and _Tobit Blind_--perhaps one, perhaps two, perhaps three,
perhaps all four.

CHAPTER IV

EPOCHS IN REMBRANDT'S LIFE

Suppose the admiration of our enthusiast for Rembrandt had been noted in
the select suburb where he lived: suppose his mother was one of those
estimable ladies who hold monthly Dorcas meetings in their drawing-rooms:
suppose that while the ladies were working at useful garments for the poor,
she persuaded her son to discourse on Rembrandt: suppose, because the
petition came from his mother that he, very much against his will,
consented.

It was not an easy task, as he took little or no interest in the life of
Rembrandt; his interests were entirely with the aesthetic appeal of his
work. What, he asked himself, can one say about the life of a man when that
life was wholly one with his art--mingling with it, ministering to it at
every point. A boy, the fifth child of a miller living at Leyden, is born
into the world, takes to art as a duck to water, becomes one of the
greatest painters of the world, dies in obscurity, is forgotten, and long
after his death is placed among his peers. What is there to say about such
a life? He made the attempt.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF AN OLD LADY IN A VELVET HOOD, HER HANDS FOLDED

1650. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.]

At the age of fourteen Rembrandt entered at Leyden University, but showed
little inclination for books. He preferred Lucas van Leyden to Virgil, and
his parents, accepting the situation, allowed him to study painting under
Swanenburch, and later in the studio of Lastman at Amsterdam. After a few
months with Lastman he returned to Leyden, "to practise painting alone and
in his own way." So much for his schooling. At the age of twenty-one he
produced a picture called _St. Paul in Prison_, and Gerard Dou became his
pupil. In 1631 he left Leyden and settled in Amsterdam. In 1634 he married
Saskia van Uylenborc