The first notable poetic lines' on Rembrandt's work can be read on the back of one of the numerous drawings the artist made while roaming along the banks of the Amstel. They were written by Philips de Koninck, one of the painter's apprentices.
A meadow by the Amstel this drawing shows as, and it is a work accomplisbed by Rembrandt's own band.
Such lines were written on many other occasions and today they are documents testifying to the real popularity the artist enjoyed, quite obviously at least for a certain period of time.
Besides this literary significance, they show there was an attempt at including the Dutch artists, Rembrandt more especially, within their contemporary cultural atmosphere, which rules out any conjecture regarding his artistic, existential isolation.
An anonymous engraving in Alle de Rijmoeffeningen (Lines from Everywhere), a volume of verse by Jeremias de Decker, representing a man, his face shaded by a wide-brimmed hat, was identified as the portrait of the poet. The legend of the engraving reads as follows:
De Decker, wbo at present in ondel's tracks will fight The errors in our language and in wbose verse so bright On bis winged style enchanted pure poetry does soar, In this print after Rembrandt's own camas lives once more.
On account of a poem by Hendrick Waterloos, published in 1660 in the collection of verse The Dutch Parnassas, it has been assumed that Rembrandt painted or wanted to paint one more portrait of De Decker who also wrote in verse "My Thanks to the Eminent and Illustrious Rembrandt van Rijn",
', which proves that
there was a fertile dialogue between the men of lettres and the painters of the time.
In 1640 Rembrandt had started working on a portrait of the Baptist preacher
Cornelis Claesz Anslo, after which an etching was made a year later. On the back of the drawing there is the following quatrain by Joost van den Vondel:
Come, paint Cornelis' voice serene
For much too little of him is seen - The rest is bidden or else blurred.
Anslo can best be seen when beard.
Hendrick Waterloos, Rembrandt's contemporary and perhaps his friend too, wrote one more poem on the back of one of the copies of Christ Healing the Sick, an etching today at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. This etching is also known under the name of the Hundred Guilder Print, taken from a story by Jean Pierre-Mariette (1694 - 1774), published in the Abecedario, in which it is related that Rembrandt was obliged to pay 100 guilders to recover his etching, hence the name under which it is known today. Though seemingly of an anecdotical character, the story confirms the fact that the etching was in great demand even during the artist's lifetime, a life full of dramatic episodes. For it comprises ten years of happiness, fourteen of troubles and twelve of dire poverty which statistically is no doubt correct. Yet it would have been impossible for Rembrandt not to enjoy, while alive, the understanding and sometimes the unconditioned recognition of those whom a common spirituality brought together.