The Great Jewish Bride

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt's first wife, Saskia Uylenburgh, whom he had married the previous year, was no doubt the model for this print, though it was not meant as a portrait. The intended subject of the print is evident in its later, finished state: the Jewish queen Esther, who is about to approach King Ahasuerus to expose Haman's intent to murder the Jews. This impression is unfinished; Rembrandt completed the lower half in a later state.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art