From that date until his death troubles encompassed him; but he was happy so long as he could paint undisturbed.

His son Titus died when he was sixty-two, and the following year Rembrandt died, and was buried at a cost of thirteen florins.
Our enthusiast did not find it easy to manipulate these facts, and he elected to slur over the Hendrickje episode; but he was able to interest the ladies of the Dorcas meeting by showing them some of Rembrandt's pictures.

He collected a series of photographs of the portraits and paintings, including his favourite pictures, such as _The Jewish Rabbi_ in the National Gallery, _Titus_ and _The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant_ in the Wallace collection, _Rembrandt's Mother_ and _The Singing Boy_ at Vienna; and he invested sixpence in a little manual recently published, called _The Masterpieces of Rembrandt_, containing sixty excellent reproductions of his portraits and pictures.
He also displayed photographs of the remarkable series in the Hermitage Gallery at St.Petersburg: _The Descent from the Cross_, with the brilliant light focussed on the body and winding sheet, and fading away into the darkness of the background; that radiant portrait of Saskia painted just before her marriage to Rembrandt, known as _Flora with a Flower-trimmed Crook_, standing at the opening of a grotto, with a wreath of flowers upon her head, and the light falling upon her face and gay attire; _The Holy Family_, the father working at his daily task in the background, and the Virgin, who has laid down her book, drawing aside the curtain from the cot to gaze upon the Child.

He explained that Rembrandt, in placing this scene in a humble Dutch cottage, knew that he could express the Biblical story better that way than if he had painted an imaginary scene after the manner of the Italians.
"This great Dutch master" (he quoted from Mr.Colvin) "succeeded in making as wonderful pictures out of spiritual abjectness and physical gloom as the Italians out of spiritual exaltation and shadowless day." [Illustration: FLORA WITH A FLOWER-TRIMMED CROOK 1634.

The Hermitage, St.Petersburg.] At this point of his discourse he began to feel more confidence, and he proceeded to focus his remarks upon four periods in Rembrandt's life--epochs that lend themselves to separate treatment, each epoch marked by the production of a masterpiece, and one remarkable portrait that has a particular and pathetic interest.