Rijksmuseum

Saskia in Bed

Date

c. 1635

Medium

paper, chalk

Culture

Amsterdam

Institution

Rijksmuseum

This quick scribble almost certainly shows Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia, whom he often drew during her confinements and illnesses. A very similar drawing, now in London, depicts the same woman holding a baby. Because Rembrandt favoured red chalk in the mid-1630s, that baby is most likely Rembrandt and Saskia’s firstborn son, Rumbartus, who was baptized on 15 December 1635 and died two months later.

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