Young Woman Seated by a Window (Saskia?), Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1638
pen and brown ink, with brown wash and opaque white, on paper toned with a light brown wash, h 175mm × w 134mm Catalogue entry
This drawing is often regarded as a ‘portrait’ of Saskia. If so, she consciously plays a role here. Wearing a simple cloth around her head and an apron, it seems as if she has come straight out of the kitchen. Saskia, however, was a mayor’s daughter and married to an artist full of social ambitions. She would thus never have walked around the house dressed like a kitchen maid.
