Lastman was putting money in his purse.  He closely studied public tastes, and conformed thereto.  He was popular, and there is in America today a countryman of his, of like temperament, who is making much moneys out of literature by similar methods.

Into Lastman’s keeping came the young man, Rembrandt Harmens.  Lastman received him cordially, and set him to work.

But the boy proved hard to manage:  he had his own ideas about how portraits should be painted.

Lastman tried to unlearn him.  The master was patient, and endeavored hard to make the young man paint as he should—­that is, as Lastman did; but the result was not a success.  The Lastman intellect felt sure that Rembrandt had no talent worth encouraging.

Lastman produced a great number of pictures, and his name can be found in the catalogs of the galleries of Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin and Antwerp; and his canvases are in many of the old castles and palaces of Germany.  In recent years they have been enjoying a vogue, simply because it was possible that Rembrandt had worked on them.  All the “Lastmans” have been gotten out and thoroughly dusted by the connoisseurs, in a frantic search for earmarks.

The perfect willingness of Lastman to paint a picture on any desired subject, and have it ready Saturday night, all in the colors the patron desired, with a guarantee that it would give satisfaction, filled the heart of Rembrandt with loathing.

At the end of six months, when he signified a wish to leave, it was a glad relief to the master.  Lastman had tried to correct Rembrandt’s vagaries as to chiaroscuro, but without success.  So he wrote an ambiguous letter certifying to the pupil’s “having all his future before him,” gave him a present of ten florins in jingling silver, and sent him back to his folks.

* * * * *

Rembrandt had been disillusioned by his stay in the fashionable art-world of Amsterdam.  Some of his idols had crumbled, and there came into his spirit a goodly dash of pessimism.  His father was disappointed and suggested that he get a place as illustrator at the bookmakers, before some one else stepped in and got the job.

But Rembrandt was not ambitious.  He decided he would not give up painting, at least not yet—­he would keep at it and he would paint as he pleased.  He had lost faith in teachers.  He moped around the town, and made the acquaintance of the painter Engelbrechtsz and his talented pupil, Lucas van Leyden.  Their work impressed him greatly, and he studied out every detail on the canvases until he had absorbed the very spirit of the artist.  Then, when he painted, he very naturally took their designs, and treated them in his own way.  Indeed, the paucity in invention of those early days must ever impress the student of art.

In visiting the galleries of Europe, I made it my business to secure a photograph of every “Madonna and Babe” of note that I could find.  My collection now numbers over one hundred copies, with no two alike.