Saskia in Bed

This quick scribble almost certainly shows Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia, whom he often drew during her confinements and illnesses. A very similar drawing, now in London, depicts the same woman holding a baby. Because Rembrandt favoured red chalk in the mid-1630s, that baby is most likely Rembrandt and Saskia’s firstborn son, Rumbartus, who was baptized on 15 December 1635 and died two months later.