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Who was Rembrandt’s first art teacher?
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Rembrandt
Self-Portrait, oil on canvas by Rembrandt, 1659; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Rembrandt’s first art teacher was the Leiden painter Jacob van Swanenburgh (1571–1638).
According to Rembrandt's first biographer, Jan Janszoon Orlers, Rembrandt trained with van Swanenburgh for approximately three years, from about 1620 to 1624. During this apprenticeship, van Swanenburgh taught him the foundational skills of the profession, including techniques for painting architectural scenes and depictions of fire and the underworld, which may have influenced Rembrandt’s lifelong interest in the effects of light.1