REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
Hard as it may be to imagine from the man who later applied strokes of Lead White paint to his self-portraits with such audacity that they seemed to reverberate down the ages, but Rembrandt van Rijn was something of a late starter.
Born in the Dutch city of Leiden on 15 July 1606, Rembrandt enrolled at the local university at the age of 14. It was during this time that he settled upon the idea of becoming an artist, yet despite being three years younger than many of his classmates, he was still behind others in that respect.
Aged about 18, he opened a small studio with his friend Jan Lievens who had already been painting for a decade at that point. Rembrandt
