Erpel Rembrandt

Rembrandt's art is much loved and admired, but his remarkable life is less well known. In this anniversary year, marking 350 years since his death, his surprising story is told from an unusual perspective - his own. This three-part series sets out to reveal the answers behind the mysteries and shadows still lurking in Rembrandt’s personal life. Actor Toby Jones assumes the voice of the artist to explore how this explosive talent, in his youth the darling of Dutch high society, end up in a lowly rented grave.

Icarus-like, Rembrandt flew ever higher towards the sun - the most successful artist in the richest city on earth, 17th-century Amsterdam. He lived like a prince and he loved living like a prince. But when his fall came - deep into bankruptcy and scandal, poverty and unfashionability - far from destroying him, it took him to new creative heights and a sense of humanity and the human condition that speaks more directly to us today than Rembrandt in his heyday. Simon Schama celebrates the masterpieces of the last years to coincide with the National Gallery's major exhibition on late Rembrandt.