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Old Book - find

Visiting a new-to-me recycled bookstore today -- with a huge art section -- I made some finds.  Among them was a book printed in 1893 titled "Saskia: The Wife of Rembrandt".

Having visited Amsterdam in 2024, I was introduced to Saskia through reading about Rembrandt.  Then I saw her tomb in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) while there.  Based on the book, they had a happy life together until she passed on at the young age of 30 leaving her husband and an infant son.  Her father, Rombertus van Uylenburgh (a lawyer and burgomaster), in his early adult years, was having dinner with Prince William of Orange and his family on the night Prince William was assassinated (a long story). 

Also in the book, it mentions Rembrandt was commissioned to paint a gallant captain and his company.  The resulting painting was his "Night Watch" that hangs in the Rijksmuseum.  It further says the soldiers were not pleased with the painting.  They ended up going to another painter who pleased them better.  The book suggests the disappointment with the work may have been the expectation that their images would have been painted to show them in a line -- straight as arrows.  I wonder if any of them imagined the "Night Watch" would become one of Rembrandt's most famous.

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