Jonathan Bikker

Rembrandt’s (1606–69) The Night Watch (1642) is the Rijksmuseum’s most famous painting, and one of the most famous artworks in the world. This in-depth guide tells of its turbulent history, mythical status and Operation Night Watch—the Rijksmuseum’s largest ever research and restoration project.

In 2019, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt (1606–69), Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is honoring the artist with an unprecedented exhibition, appropriately titled All the Rembrandts. The “Year of Rembrandt” also brings us Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel, an authoritative biography of the Dutch Master written by acclaimed Rembrandt scholar Jonathan Bikker and designed by Irma Boom. The Rijksmuseum’s collection of Rembrandt’s paintings offers a coherent overview of the artist’s life—from his early Self-Portrait as a Young Man (c. 1628) to his late Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661)—and Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel fills in the context around these and other works, painting an unparalleled picture of Rembrandt as a human being, as an artist, as a storyteller and as an innovator.

Jonathan Bikker (born 1965) has worked at the Rijksmuseum since 2001 and has been Curator of Research since 2006. He studied Art History at McMaster University and Queen’s University in Canada. In the Rijksmuseum’s Fine Arts department, he primarily works as writer and editor-in-chief of a series of catalogs of 17th-century North Dutch paintings. He has also contributed to a number of Rijksmuseum exhibition catalogs.