A bit more about the wonderful name SASKIA (copy)

Did you know that there is a famous portrait called Saskia?  It was painted by Rembrandt.  Read on to find out more about this famous Saskia.

Dutch artist Rembrandt painted this double portrait of himself and his wife in 1635, about a year after his marriage to Saskia van Uylenburgh. This sensuous work shows the artist balancing Saskia on his knee with one hand and raising a glass of ale in an exuberant toast with the other. The painting is in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, Germany.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn is known as one of the greatest painters in history. He was a Dutch baroque artist. Rembrandt created over 600 paintings and thousands of sketches.  Most of his paintings were of people.

Rembrandt was born on July 15, 1606, in Leiden, a town in South Holland in the Netherlands. He was born into a family of ten. He went to school at Latin University of Leiden at the age of 14. He left that school to go to art school. Then, after mastering everything at the art school, he returned to Latin University of Leiden. He graduated at age 22.

Rembrandt used his art talent to support himself. He made all his money from selling his paintings. He was also an art teacher and sold other people’s art. Rembrandt’s work became better known and more valuable when some of his paintings were added to a collection in New York City.

By 1631, Rembrandt had established such a good reputation that he received several assignments for portraits from Amsterdam. As a result, he moved to that city and into the house of an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh. This move eventually led, in 1634, to the marriage of Rembrandt and Hendrick's greatniece, Saskia van Uylenburgh. This was obviously a marriage of love. Although she came from a good family  her father had been burgemeester (mayor) of Leeuwarden), Saskia was an orphan and was probably not very wealthy.

A Portrait entitled Saskia. It was painted shortly after their 1634 marriage.

Saskia’s cousin introduced him to many wealthy collectors who wanted to hire Rembrandt to paint special works for them. As he became more successful in his career, his personal life was very sad. By 1641, Rembrandt and Saskia had four children. Three of his four children became ill and died tragically. Only his last child, Titus lived. Saskia died shortly after the children in 1642. Rembrandt died in Amsterdam, on October 4^th 1669.

I have to say that my own Saskia is much prettier than Rembrandts! 
Judge for yourself!