Down to the middle of the present century the story of Rembrandt, as generally accepted, was nothing but a mass of more or less ill-natured fiction. His drunkenness, his luxury, his immorality, his avarice, were heaped together into a somewhat inconsistent midden-heap of infamy. It was not indeed until his true rank among painters began to be properly appreciated that it occurred to anyone to ask whether this harsh judgment did not need revision; nay, more, to inquire upon what evidence it had been first delivered, and the investigation had not long been set on foot before the question took the form--"Is there any evidence, good or bad, at all?"
There were soon many workers in this untried field, and to all the thanks of the artist's admirers are due, but it is chiefly to M. Charles Vosmaer that his complete rehabilitation is to be credited, and it is bare justice to say that without availing himself freely of his researches and of M. Michel's equally careful and critical marshalling of the facts, then and since obtained by others, no future historian of Rembrandt can hope to advance beyond the threshold of his subject. One by one the cobwebs of myth with which, partly through malice, partly through ignorance, the master's image had been overwhelmed have been torn away, and we begin at last to see him as he really was, not impeccable, but intensely human, a kindly, patient, laborious, much-tried soul--one whom fortune, not altogether without his own provoking be it frankly owned, sorely buffeted, but one who, though well-nigh crushed, was never subdued; one whose courage sustained him to the last, whose one refuge against her flouts was in his art; who met, uncomplaining, neglect and contempt in his later years as he had in the heyday of his career received, unspoiled, unstinted praise and well-earned fame, and who said of himself in the height of his prosperity, "When I want rest for my mind, it is not honours I crave, but liberty."
Much concerning Rembrandt has been revealed by M. Vosmaer and his fellow-workers, by MM. Bredius and Scheltema, de Vries and Immerzeel, Elzevier and Eckhoff, van der Willigen, and other patient seekers, but much, nevertheless, still remains in doubt or darkness.