Relationship with Rembrandt[edit]
Hendrickje obtained work as Rembrandt's housekeeper, and seems to have lived with him from approximately 1647, at first as a maid, but fast becoming much more. This led to an acrimonious fallout with Rembrandt's previous live-in lover Geertje Dircx, who sued Rembrandt for breach of promise in 1649, and demanded maintenance payments from him. Hendrickje testified in the case, confirming that a financial agreement had been reached with Geertje. In the same year Hendrickje returned to Bredevoort for the summer (possibly with Rembrandt accompanying her), and is there mentioned as a witness to a christening in the Bredevoorts church records. The Eighty Years' War was past, and peace was finally reaching even the eastern Netherlands.
In 1654, when she was pregnant with Rembrandt's daughter, Hendrickje had to appear before the church council for "living in sin" with Rembrandt, who was a widower and 20 years her senior. She admitted that she had "committed the acts of a whore with Rembrandt the painter" and was banned from receiving communion.On 30 October 1654, the couple's daughter Cornelia van Rijn was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.
Initially, Rembrandt's unwillingness to marry Hendrickje had a pecuniary motive: by marrying her he would have forfeited the inheritance of his first wife Saskia van Uylenburgh. Even with this inheritance he had major financial problems, but without it he would have been bankrupt. But then in 1655, Titus – the son he had with Saskia – turned 14, and thereby eligible by law to make his will. Rembrandt immediately made sure that Titus installed him as his only heir and by that he outwitted Saskia. Still, he did not marry Hendrickje.