Saskia van Uylenburgh

Saskia van Uylenburgh (August 2, 1612, Leeuwarden, Friesland – June 14, 1642 in Amsterdam) was the wife of painter Rembrandt van Rijn. In the course of her life she was his model for some of his paintings, drawings and etchings. She was the daughter of a Frisian mayor.

Asteroid 461 Saskia is named in her honor.

Life[edit]

Saskia was born in Leeuwarden, the youngest of the eight children of Sjoukje Ozinga and Rombertus van Uylenburgh, a top lawyer, a town burgomaster, and one of the founders of the University of Franeker. Saskia (called Saske in Friesland) was orphaned by age 12, as her mother died in 1619 and her father five years later. Supposedly she met Rembrandt at the home of her uncle, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, a painter and art dealer who had emigrated from Friesland to Kraków in