Saskia can be found at Bookworms New St, Cromer NR27 9HP
Saskia van Uylenburgh in Arcadian Costume, 1635
Oil on canvas, 123.5 × 97.5 cm
Bought with contributions from the Art Fund, 1938
© The National Gallery, London
Saskia van Uylenburgh in Arcadian Costume, 1635
Rembrandt
Oil on canvas, 123.5 × 97.5 cm
Saskia van Uylenburgh, the daughter of a burgomaster of Leeuwarden in Friesland, was Rembrandt’s first wife. Here, she is 23 years old; they have been married for a year. She is dressed as Flora, the Roman goddess of spring and fertility.
Her gorgeous gown is a seventeenth-century version of Renaissance dress and she carries an enormous bunch of spring flowers that includes tulips, roses, primulas and tiny pinks. More flowers decorate her neck and forehead. Pearls hang from her ears and peep from the crown of her head. Delicate green leaves wind round the stick in her other hand.
Read more at NationalGallery.org.uk
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1606. His father was a miller, comfortably off and able to send Rembrandt to the town’s Latin School. At the age of 14, Rembrandt began studying at the famous University of Leiden (unusual for a miller’s son), but academic life did not suit him. After a few months he left to begin an apprenticeship as a painter.
Read more at NationalGallery.org.uk