REMBRANDT
Saskia van Ulenburg
FIVE
Rembrandt’s life was one of curious contrasts. During his early manhood he was Amsterdam’s leading portrait painter. These were years of happiness and carefree enjoyment of all the good things of life. But almost as suddenly as the painter stepped into the sunshine of success, he fell back into the shadows of adversity. One of the principal causes of his happiness was his wife, Saskia. Just as her entrance into his life coincided with the period of his greatest prosperity, so her death marked the beginning of his darker years. It would seem almost as though Saskia were his guardian angel, and that with her departure Rembrandt’s star began to descend.
Saskia van Ulenburg was the ninth child of a wealthy patrician family of Friesland. She was born at Leeuwarden in 1612. Saskia became an orphan at an early age, and then she made her home with one or the other of her married sisters in turn, and finally with a cousin, who lived in Amsterdam. It was at the house of this cousin that Rembrandt met her. Charmed by her youthful grace, he obtained permission to paint several portraits of her.
Saskia at this time was a slender girl, rather small of stature. Her features were very regular, and her eyes were of a beautiful brown shade, matching her soft reddish brown hair. Her brilliant complexion was the envy of her less favored companions.
The young painter soon showed that he took a special interest in Saskia. He bestowed great care on her portraits, and was in her company as much as possible. He himself was young, attractive, and good looking; and we may be sure that Saskia’s family did not frown upon his suit. They probably realized that Rembrandt would make an excellent husband for their ward.
Rembrandt’s father had died some time before this, and his mother gladly gave her consent to the marriage. Saskia and Rembrandt were made man and wife on June 22, 1634.
Their life together was very happy. Rembrandt’s tastes were domestic, and he was never more pleased than when planning his wife’s happiness. He centered his whole thought and energy upon her. Saskia, simple and loving, was governed in all things by his wishes: she was entirely devoted to him.
Rembrandt liked to use Saskia as his model. Some of the better known pictures for which she posed are her own portrait in the Cassel Gallery, the “Jewish Bride,” painted in 1634, which is now in the Hermitage in Petrograd, “Sophonisba Receiving the Cup of Poison from Massinissa,” in the Prado at Madrid, which is also dated 1634, and the famous painting of Saskia and himself, now in the Dresden Gallery and done about 1635, which represents Rembrandt in military costume, seated at a table, with a long glass of sparkling wine in his hand and Saskia perched on his knee.
At this period in his life everything seemed to smile on Rembrandt. He was extravagant and did not know the meaning of the word “save.” Saskia’s health had not as yet given cause for anxiety. But sad days were to come. Three children were lost in rapid succession. In 1641 the only child of theirs who survived was born. He was named Titus, after Saskia’s sister Titia. But the young wife did not live long after her son was born. Her health broke down, and an etching made by Rembrandt about 1640 shows her with sharpened features, feverish eyes, and an expression of pensive melancholy. The happy days were over. Their brief union, begun in joy, was soon to end in tears. As if in prophecy, Rembrandt’s anxieties were deepened by another sorrow—the death of his mother in 1640.
Saskia’s illness made rapid progress. Day after day she faded, and no longer did the artist have any delusions as to her recovery. Saskia made her will on June 5, 1642. She herself, however, had not lost all hope, for in this will she spoke of the children she might eventually have. She made Rembrandt trustee of her property for their son Titus, showing her perfect trust in her husband. At the end of the document she signed her name for the last time in tremulous, almost illegible characters, as if exhausted by the effort.
It was only a few days later that Saskia passed away, on June 19, 1642. Rembrandt followed her coffin to the Oude Kerk and then returned to his lonely house, where everything reminded him of his brief happiness and where he was now alone with a child nine months old. He never seemed to recover from the blow. He went on working, and during the years to come painted some of his greatest pictures; but seemingly he had lost his grip on life, and from that time on it was only a matter of a few years until he was overwhelmed by financial troubles and was driven to a humble lodging and his death.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 20, SERIAL No. 120
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
IN THE CASSEL GALLERY
COPPENOL—Portrait by Rembrandt