Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/552

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522 Painting Anatomy ; and two years later he married Saskia, the daughter of Rombertus Ulenburch, burgomaster of Leeu- warden. Saskia was the wife whose portrait he loved to paint, though not to the same extent as he did his old mother. The Dresden Gallery has the beautiful and justly- famous picture of Rembrandt with his Wife on his knee ; and in the Cassel Gallery is one of Saskia alone. Saskia died in 1642, and Rembrandt married again, about 1653, to Hen- dricktie Stoffels. Catharina van Wyck is usually said to have been his third wife. This has recently been shown to be an error, arising from a mis-reading of the marriage register, and Rembrandt, therefore, so far as we know, was married but twice. He continued to paint at Amsterdam till his death in 1669. Rembrandt excelled alike in every style, and treated, with equal felicity, the noblest subjects — such as Christ healing the Sick — and the most homely scenes, such as a cook tossing her cakes in a pan. His works are principally remarkable for perfect command of chiaroscuro, picturesque effect, and truth to nature. He combined the greatest freedom and grace of execution with thorough knowledge of all the technical processes alike of painting, engraving, and etching. The effects of light and shade in his etchings have never been surpassed ; and he has been justly called the Dutch Correggio. His landscapes and sea-pieces are vividly faithful representations of the inhospitable North, with its dull level stretch of ocean and dreary shores ; whilst his interiors give us lifelike glimpses of the domestic life of the home-loving Dutch people. The want of feeling for refined physical beauty with which he, in common with all his countrymen, has been charged, is perhaps to some extent to be accounted for by his intense sympathy with