Saskia van Uylenburgh(1612 — 1642)

Saskia van Uylenburgh met Rembrandt through her cousin Hendrick van Uylenburgh, an art dealer with whom the young painter was lodging in Amsterdam. A few days after their engagement in 1633, Rembrandt made a small silverpoint drawing showing Saskia wearing a wide flowered straw hat, with an inscription noting that he had sketched her three days after their betrothal.

Saskia had four children with Rembrandt, but three died in infancy. Only their son Titus, born in 1641, survived. This succession of bereavements deeply affected the couple, and Saskia herself died at only 29, a few months after Titus was born, probably of tuberculosis.

In her will, Saskia left her fortune to Titus while granting Rembrandt the use of the assets, on the condition that he did not remarry. This clause had heavy consequences: later, Saskia's family kept watch over the inheritance money, which complicated the painter's already fragile financial situation.

Rembrandt depicted Saskia in a wide variety of roles: the goddess Flora crowned with flowers, a biblical figure, or simply a smiling wife. The famous painting sometimes called “Rembrandt and Saskia in the Scene of the Prodigal Son” shows them both merry at the tavern, the painter raising his glass, Saskia seated on his lap.

Born into a wealthy patrician family from Frisia, Saskia brought a substantial dowry and a social network that helped Rembrandt establish himself in Amsterdam's high society. Her father, Rombertus van Uylenburgh, had been burgomaster of Leeuwarden and had known William of Orange.