Self-Portrait with Saskia

Rembrandt van Rijn

1636

Etching

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a woman with a headdress are depicted in a close-up portrait. The man is in the foreground, looking directly at the viewer, while the woman is seated behind him to the left. Self portrait with Saskia, made in 1636, shows Rembrandt pausing in his work. His hand has gone slack on the stylus. He and his wife stare out at us. It is as though we have interrupted them. Rembrandt was of course gazing into a mirror, where he saw Sakia at the table, serving as partner, model, and muse. The novel image fits into no clear pictorial tradition. Though twenty-first-century sensibilities may spark criticism of the unequal scale of husband and wife, in the context of the seventeenth century, the image is one of remarkable intimacy. This impression is unusually fine and well preserved. Gallery Not on View Gift of Ruth a