What sort of painter was Rembrandt at the beginning of his career?

Rembrandt, one of the greatest artists of all time, was born in Leyden in the Netherlands. Many artists traveled to faraway lands. Rembrandt always stayed within 50 miles of his home, although he lived to be 63.
     Much of his life was spent in Amsterdam, then the richest town in Europe. In some of Rembrandt’s paintings we see the rich clothes and jewels worn by people of that time in Amsterdam.
     During the first ten years of his career he was a famous and fashionable painter. Then something happened, which ruined him. He became so poor that he had to sell all his furniture and even his rich velvet clothes. To make matters worse, his wealthy wife died, and her parents took the money she had left to him.
     The following incident ruined the sale of his paintings: the Amsterdam Civic Guard had paid him to paint a picture of them. Since he liked light and shadow, he painted the men as they were leaving the armory at noon to go on duty. The men still inside were in such deep shadow that their faces could not be recognized. These men were very angry. The men in the sunlight of course showed well. But their satisfaction did not make up for the anger of others. The picture is one of Rembrandt’s best. It is called "The Night Watch", although it was painted at noon.