Rembrandt's Whore

Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels attributed to Rembrandt

Twenty year-old Hendrickje Stoffels makes the journey from her Dutch village to Amsterdam to model for Rembrandt, forty-three. Rembrandt has her pose for his paintings and soon falls in love with her. Because of a contract he has signed regarding not being able to marry after his former wife's death, he is not able to marry her and thus she becomes his mistress. The lifelong affair produces a child, Cornelia.

Stoffels is later condemned and publicly labeled a whore by the Catholic Church. Their love goes far beyond the physical, however, and it is the young woman who ends up caring for the painter, protecting him from his voracious creditors and the Amsterdam politicians who would exploit his formidable talent. Stoffels encourages Rembrandt as he struggles to remain true to his vision against the spirit of a conservative philistine society.

The second half of Rembrandt's life was characterized by bankruptcy, illness, and his downfall from Amsterdam's best known painter to his exploitation by people who took advantage of his precarious situation. Stoffels stood by him and provided him with care and emotional support.

It is because of Hendrickje that Rembrandt was able to live, having lost his wife Saskia and children in a tragic manner.

Just paint it!