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Lot Essay
Presented here in grand style, Rembrandt's wife Saskia is once again the sitter for this portrait, as in the so-called 'Little Jewish Bride' (lot 9), which precedes it by three years. The present etching was completed in 1635 - the year after Saskia married Rembrandt - and is one the finest and most elaborate portraits of her.
In the Jewish tradition, the bride was dressed before the wedding in the finest garments and awaited the groom seated on a special chair. Saskia is depicted in this moment, wearing an elaborate costume beautifully rendered by Rembrandt, holding a scroll in her left hand, the ketubah, which lists all the promises of her marriage.
A variety of other interpretations of this stately portrait have been suggested, including Saskia being depicted here as the goddess Minerva holding her script; as a Sibyl with a written prophecy, and - perhaps most convincingly - the Biblical heroine Esther before her wedding to King Ahasuerus, who would later in the story prevent a massacre of the Jews in Persia.
A boldly sketched drawing of the figure (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, inv. no. NMH1992/1863) is one of the few preparatory studies Rembrandt seems to have made for a print. He then developed the image on the copper plate through five successive states within a short period of time, as the watermark evidence suggests. The first two states are unfinished. The image is essentially completed in the third state, but Rembrandt continues to refine it and to add further shading in the fourth and present fifth state. It is the most elaborate and carefully composed female portrait in Rembrandt's printed oeuvre, which in the words of Martin Royalton-Kisch, 'has always been counted among the artist’s most desirable prints’ (Royalton-Kisch, in: Hinterding et. al., 2000, p. 140-144).
In the Jewish tradition, the bride was dressed before the wedding in the finest garments and awaited the groom seated on a special chair. Saskia is depicted in this moment, wearing an elaborate costume beautifully rendered by Rembrandt, holding a scroll in her left hand, the ketubah, which lists all the promises of her marriage.
A variety of other interpretations of this stately portrait have been suggested, including Saskia being depicted here as the goddess Minerva holding her script; as a Sibyl with a written prophecy, and - perhaps most convincingly - the Biblical heroine Esther before her wedding to King Ahasuerus, who would later in the story prevent a massacre of the Jews in Persia.
A boldly sketched drawing of the figure (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, inv. no. NMH1992/1863) is one of the few preparatory studies Rembrandt seems to have made for a print. He then developed the image on the copper plate through five successive states within a short period of time, as the watermark evidence suggests. The first two states are unfinished. The image is essentially completed in the third state, but Rembrandt continues to refine it and to add further shading in the fourth and present fifth state. It is the most elaborate and carefully composed female portrait in Rembrandt's printed oeuvre, which in the words of Martin Royalton-Kisch, 'has always been counted among the artist’s most desirable prints’ (Royalton-Kisch, in: Hinterding et. al., 2000, p. 140-144).