Saskia van Uylenburgh
Leeuwarden Lonkt

Saskia and Rembrandt walk here in front of the current ‘Kanselarij’ on the current Turfmarkt 13 (nowadays an entire street without a canal). Then the Hof van Friesland on a street with canals and bridges (because of this, this current street also has so many street names in one small street: Turfmarkt, Tweebaksmarkt and Druifstreek). The edges of the canals are photographed of the current canals in Leeuwarden.

Saskia van Uylenburgh was the wife of the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn and was the model for a number of his important works. The couple had four children, three of whom died shortly after birth. Titus, the youngest child, survived the longest. Rembrandt never married again.

Saske (Saskia) Uylenburgh (1612 – 1642) was born and baptized in Leeuwarden. She was the youngest of eight children from a good family and named after her grandmother. She was an afterthought. Her father was 58 years old at birth and her mother 47 years old. Her father was involved in the foundation of the Franeker University of Applied Sciences. In 1584 he became one of the mayors of Leeuwarden, also a delegate from the province of Friesland to The Hague. He was invited to Delft for a consultation with Willem the Silent, who was murdered by Balthasar Gerards after consuming a midday meal with her father. She was an orphan at the age of twelve. In 1628, Saskia’s parental home was sold and she came into the care of her elder sister Hiskia (Hiskje) in Sint Annaparochie. That is where the religious blessing for the marriage took place on July 2, 1634. The banns and civil marriage took place in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Rembrandt signed the banns register on 10 June 1634. Reverend Johannes Silvius signed for Saskia Uylenburgh.