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Lot Essay
From around 1632 onwards, Rembrandt produced a number of prints which have come to be known as 'sheets of studies'. They usually show sketches of several heads, figures and perhaps some other pictorial elements, sometimes in the same orientation, but occasionally also sideways or upside down from each other. These prints were not, however, discarded attempts or occasional 'by-products', but were deliberately composed to resemble a page from a sketch book. They demonstrate not only that Rembrandt, as early as the 1630s, was interested the concept of the unfinished, but that collectors were too. Whether these 'study sheets' were specifically made for connoisseurs of drawings or appealed to the general print market is difficult to ascertain. In any case, their attraction lay and still lies in the illusion of seeing the artist at work and 'looking over his shoulder'.
The present print is a relatively sparse and uncrowded example, and it is a particularly moving one, for it shows Rembrandt's young wife Saskia: once looking with great concentration and a thoughtful hand gesture directly towards the viewer, once seen in half-profile looking down as if reading; the third head, of which only the eyes and a few scribbled lines are present, may also be her. Rembrandt frequently depicted Saskia, as herself or in disguise (see lots 9 & 10), as sitter or model, but always with great tenderness and respect.
When Rembrandt etched this plate in 1637, they were married for three years. They had been engaged and living together a year before their marriage, a practice which does not seem to have been unusual. It was the betrothal rather than the wedding, in fact, that marked the beginning of the union. Saskia van Uylenburgh was born in 1612 into a large and influential family in Leeuwarden, the capital of the northern province of Friesland, where her father served as burgomaster. Saskia and Rembrandt undoubtedly met through her cousin, the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh (circa 1587 – 1661), with whom Rembrandt, since his move to Amsterdam in 1631, was living and working at his house and studio on Sint Antoniesbreestraat (later Jodenbreestraat).
The present print is a relatively sparse and uncrowded example, and it is a particularly moving one, for it shows Rembrandt's young wife Saskia: once looking with great concentration and a thoughtful hand gesture directly towards the viewer, once seen in half-profile looking down as if reading; the third head, of which only the eyes and a few scribbled lines are present, may also be her. Rembrandt frequently depicted Saskia, as herself or in disguise (see lots 9 & 10), as sitter or model, but always with great tenderness and respect.
When Rembrandt etched this plate in 1637, they were married for three years. They had been engaged and living together a year before their marriage, a practice which does not seem to have been unusual. It was the betrothal rather than the wedding, in fact, that marked the beginning of the union. Saskia van Uylenburgh was born in 1612 into a large and influential family in Leeuwarden, the capital of the northern province of Friesland, where her father served as burgomaster. Saskia and Rembrandt undoubtedly met through her cousin, the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh (circa 1587 – 1661), with whom Rembrandt, since his move to Amsterdam in 1631, was living and working at his house and studio on Sint Antoniesbreestraat (later Jodenbreestraat).