Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, born on July…

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, as the ninth child born to the affluent Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck, had attended Latin school and enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a contemporary he had a greater inclination towards painting; he was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh, with whom he spent three years.

After a brief but important apprenticeship of six months with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt had opened a studio in Leiden in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan Lievens.

The Stoning of Saint Stephen is Rembrandt’s first painting, executed in 1625 at the age of 19.