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Rembrandt kept spending money at top speed though he was no longer getting portrait commissions. This procedure came to its inevitable finish when in 1657, at the age of 51, he was officially declared bankrupt. Saskia's kinsmen had got in time's nick a second mortgage on the house, to safeguard Titus' depleted legacy. At the forced sale of Rembrandt's collections, the prices bid were under what Dutchmen were accustomed to bid for paintings. He saved his etching plates, however, and got a little money for himself from the sale of prints.
Paying less & less attention to his material condition, Rembrandt worked faster & faster. When his son died, he wore his best to the grave, a ragged, fur-lined coat daubed with paint. A year later, a puff-eyed, firm-jawed 63-year-oldster. deserted except by a few kinswomen and the neighborhood Jews, he died. His fame as a painter had long since vanished into the attics of Amsterdam, apparently forever.
*Of the countless so-called Rembrandt paintings now extant, most authorities agree that no less than 400, no more than 700, are genuine.