MADRID, SPAIN.- As it has happened along the history of art with other works, nobody knows what happened to the work “The Circumcision” painted by Rembrandt in 1646. There is a replica of this work at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum which has made many researchers come up with different theories on this. Some say that the Catholic Church could be responsible for its disappearance. Others say that this was a vengeance to Rembrandt for going out with many women. The work was part of the Passion cycle. Prince Frederick Hendrik of Orange commissioned Rembrandt to paint seven paintings that reflected the life of Christ and were done between 1632 and 1646. The other six paintings are at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The “Circumcision” painting got lost before 1756, when the rest of the series underwent a restoration process.
After Rembrandt completed his training as a painter in 1625, he set up in business as an artist in his home town of Leiden, where he remained until 1631. In that year or shortly afterwards he moved to Amsterdam. Before then, Rembrandt must often have travelled from Leiden to Amsterdam to paint portraits and carry out other commissions. Since the city ‘appeared to be favourable to him’, a contemporary tells us, Rembrandt decided to move there permanently. For an ambitious artist like Rembrandt, Amsterdam certainly offered many more opportunities than Leiden, which was significantly smaller and less prosperous. In 1630 Amsterdam had around 125,000 inhabitants as against no more than 30,000 in Leiden. Amsterdam’s booming economy also attracted many wealthy individuals. Paintings and other works of art were in great demand.
Between 1631 and 1635 Rembrandt lodged with Hendrick Uylenburgh, whose house stood on the corner of the Sint-Anthonisbreestraat and the Zwanenburgwal, right next to the present Rembrandt House. Rembrandt’s output rose sharply during this period, particularly the number of portraits he produced. We know of no portraits dating from his time in Leiden. During this period the style of his prints underwent a change. He also started to etch new subjects. Rembrandt met his future wife, Saskia, whom he married in 1634, in Uylenburgh’s house. Saskia van Uylenburgh was Hendrick’s niece.
Uylenburgh’s house was in an artists’ quarter. The artists who lived in this part of town included Cornelis van der Voort, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, Jan Tengnagel and the history painter Pieter Lastman, with whom Rembrandt studied for six months in about 1625.
The close collaboration with Uylenburgh came to an end in 1635. In that year Rembrandt moved into a rented house in the Nieuwe Doelenstraat. Not long afterwards, he moved again to a house in the Zwanenburgerstraat. In January 1639 he bought a house in the Breestraat, the present Rembrandt House. He was to live there for almost twenty years. Rembrandt’s house.