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Lot Essay
Dated around 1641-42, but made in a modest format mostly found in Rembrandt's early printed oeuvre, this is generally accepted to be a portrait of Rembrandt’s wife Saskia during the period of her final illness. As Christopher White wrote, ‘... it is a most moving document; instead of the plump cheeks and ample chin, his wife appears as thin and haggard, with an infinitely weary expression. It is one of the most intensely felt studies Rembrandt ever made, and the vivid pathos is not a little suggested by the extreme freedom with which he sketched in the head with the etching needle’ (White, 1999, p. 141).
Saskia and Rembrandt met in 1631 and by 1633 they were engaged. Their union lasted for about ten years, until her untimely death in 1642, and it appears to have been not just a successful but also a happy and loving marriage. Their complicity seems manifest in the many sketches, paintings and prints the artist made of his wife as the model or sitter. The couple suffered a series of distressful - but at the time common - family tragedies with the premature loss of their first three children between 1635 and 1640. None survived longer than two weeks. Finally, in 1641, Saskia gave birth to Titus, her only child to reach adulthood (although Rembrandt still outlived his son by a year). The birth of Titus, though, came with grave post-partum consequences: the delivery weakened Saskia and she never quite recovered, eventually becoming chronically ill, presumably with tuberculosis. Her bed-ridden condition was recorded by Rembrandt in a number of drawings and another etching, Sheet of Studies, with a Woman lying ill in Bed (B. 369; New Holl. 177). She lived only for nine months after Titus's birth, and died a month before her thirtieth birthday, on 14 Jun 1642.
In the present small etching, Rembrandt depicted her - possibly sitting up in bed - with fine and delicate lines which poignantly echo her frailty and the tenderness he felt for her.
The light, shallow lines did not allow for a large print-run of this plate. This and the deeply personal nature of the subject may explain the scarcity of this print. The present sheet is a very good example of the second state; the first state, with foul biting on her right jaw, is unobtainable and only known in three impressions.
Saskia and Rembrandt met in 1631 and by 1633 they were engaged. Their union lasted for about ten years, until her untimely death in 1642, and it appears to have been not just a successful but also a happy and loving marriage. Their complicity seems manifest in the many sketches, paintings and prints the artist made of his wife as the model or sitter. The couple suffered a series of distressful - but at the time common - family tragedies with the premature loss of their first three children between 1635 and 1640. None survived longer than two weeks. Finally, in 1641, Saskia gave birth to Titus, her only child to reach adulthood (although Rembrandt still outlived his son by a year). The birth of Titus, though, came with grave post-partum consequences: the delivery weakened Saskia and she never quite recovered, eventually becoming chronically ill, presumably with tuberculosis. Her bed-ridden condition was recorded by Rembrandt in a number of drawings and another etching, Sheet of Studies, with a Woman lying ill in Bed (B. 369; New Holl. 177). She lived only for nine months after Titus's birth, and died a month before her thirtieth birthday, on 14 Jun 1642.
In the present small etching, Rembrandt depicted her - possibly sitting up in bed - with fine and delicate lines which poignantly echo her frailty and the tenderness he felt for her.
The light, shallow lines did not allow for a large print-run of this plate. This and the deeply personal nature of the subject may explain the scarcity of this print. The present sheet is a very good example of the second state; the first state, with foul biting on her right jaw, is unobtainable and only known in three impressions.