Rembrandt and His Wife Saskia (1636): Art, History and Details

Rembrandt and His Wife Saskia (1636) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This self-portrait is the only one in which Rembrandt showed himself with his young wife, Saskia. Both figures appear in formal attire and directly meet the viewer’s gaze. To represent himself, Rembrandt deeply etched the copper plate to create dark and decisive lines, as seen below his collar and on his left wrist. He etched Saskia’s image more lightly, with faint lines that situate her in the composition’s background. Rembrandt may have drawn the image at least in part while sitting in front of a mirror.

Object facts

• Title: Rembrandt and His Wife Saskia
• Date: 1636
• Creator attribution: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Sheet: 10.5 x 9.2 cm (4 1/8 x 3 5/8 in.); Matted: 49.1 x 36.2 cm (19 5/16 x 14 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1959.81

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 2 (February 1960): 28–35.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.