Artists to Know: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest artist in European art history. He is best known for his very delicate and beautiful figure drawings. Figure drawing is an exercise in drawing the human body in its various shapes and positions. "Life drawing" is the process of drawing the human figure from observation of a live model. Figure drawing is arguably the most difficult subject an artist commonly encounters, and entire classes are dedicated to the subject. The human figure is one of the most enduring themes in the visual arts, and figure drawing can be applied to portraiture, cartooning and comic book illustration, sculpture, medical illustration, and other fields that use depictions of the human form. Figure drawing can be done very simply, as in gesture drawing, or in greater detail, using charcoal, pencil or other drawing tools. If pigment is used, the process may be called figure painting.

(image: School of Rembrant, Sitting Nude, Black Crayon, 16x12in)