Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam

Rembrandthuis is a museum in the former home of the painter Rembrandt van Rijn. From 1639 to 1658, Rembrandt lived here, worked in its studio, and ran an art dealership from the house. Look at the facade: its triangular pediment belongs to a building constructed around 1606 and altered around 1627, when an extra floor was added.

Rembrandt bought the property on 5 January 1639 for thirteen thousand guilders. After Rembrandt’s bankruptcy, the property went to auction in 1658 and fetched eleven thousand guilders. The rooms now recreate his domestic and working world using the inventory made during that bankruptcy.

You can see his living room, art room, and studio, alongside seventeenth-century works by his teacher Pieter Lastman and pupils Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck. The museum also holds an almost complete collection of Rembrandt’s etchings and some original copper plates. A remarkably intimate discovery is displayed here too: two pots recovered from the cesspool in 1997 were used by Rembrandt, and one still contains quartz soil, a quartz-and-clay mixture he prepared for his canvases. The museum opened on 10 June 1911, after restoration by Karel de Bazel.