Saskia as Flora
Rembrandt·1641
Historical Context
Rembrandt painted Saskia as Flora in 1641, depicting his wife as the goddess of spring for the second time (the first version dates from 1634). By 1641 Saskia was seriously ill with tuberculosis — she would die the following year — and the painting's wistful, melancholy quality suggests awareness of her declining health. The rich floral costume contrasts with the sadness in her expression. Now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, the painting is one of Rembrandt's most poignant personal works.
Technical Analysis
The richly embroidered dress and floral headdress are painted with warm, luminous tones, while Saskia's gentle, slightly fatigued expression adds a poignant undertone to the mythological costume portrait.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the rich embroidered dress and floral headdress — the mythological costume painting over Saskia's diminishing physical reality.
- ◆Look at the gentle, slightly fatigued expression beneath the celebratory Flora costume — the poignant undertone Rembrandt allows to show.
- ◆Observe the warmly luminous tones applied to the elaborate dress, the painter's love for his subject visible in the care of execution.
- ◆Find the melancholy that makes this second Flora different from the first: the 1641 painting made while Saskia was dying of tuberculosis.
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