Rembrandt House Museum

Rembrandt bought this house in 1639 for thirteen thousand guilders on credit, at the height of his success, and lived and worked in it for twenty years until the debt caught up with him; in 1656 he was declared insolvent, and the court had a notary make a complete inventory of everything in the building, room by room, before it was sold. That document is the reason the museum works: the rooms have been reconstructed and refurnished according to the inventory, so the house shows what was actually in each space - the studio with its light from the north, the kunstkaemer packed with the shells, weapons, casts and curiosities he collected compulsively and which helped ruin him, the pupils' attic, the kitchen. Demonstrations of etching and paint-grinding are given daily. The museum holds nearly all his etchings, shown in rotation.

The main sights

• Rooms from a bankruptcy inventory - refurnished to the 1656 list, room by room.
• The north-lit studio - where he painted, with the light he worked in.
• The kunstkaemer - shells, weapons and casts of the collection that helped ruin him.
• Etching demonstrations - the technique shown daily, with the print collection rotating.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Good to know

Almost nothing in the house is Rembrandt's own property - it is period furnishing to the inventory. Stairs are steep and narrow. Timed tickets and it is busy. Paintings are mostly elsewhere.

Nearby

The Portuguese Synagogue and Waterlooplein are a short walk away.

Key facts