Flora (Rembrandt, Hermitage)

Flora

Artist	Rembrandt
Year	1634
Dimensions	125 cm × 101 cm (49 in × 40 in)
Location	Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Flora or Saskia as Flora is a 1634 painting by Rembrandt, showing his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh as the goddess Flora. It is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1915, who wrote; "206. FLORA. Bode 336 ; Dut. 267 ; Wb. 412 ; B.-HdG. 189. She stands, in profile to the left. She turns her face, which has Saskia's features, with a slight inclination towards the spectator. In her right hand she holds a staff entwined with flowers diagonally before her ; she lifts up her long mantle in front with her left hand. Her hair, adorned with a large garland of flowers, falls in long curls down her back. In her ear is a pearl. She wears a dress of gay pattern with loose sleeves, a scarf crossed on her bosom, and a light blue mantle falling from her shoulders. The light, which is evenly distributed, falls from the left. Thick bushes form a dark background. Life size, three-quarter length. Wrongly called until now "The Jewish Bride." Signed on the left below the right hand, "Rembrandt f. 1634"; canvas, 50 inches by 40 inches. Etched by N. Mossoloff in Les Rembrandts de l'Ermitage ; and in the Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, viii. Mentioned by Vosmaer, pp. 504, etc. ; by Bode, pp. 424, 60 1 ; by Dutuit, p. 37 ; by Michel, pp. 175, 567 [134, 441]. Sale. Herman Aarentz, Amsterdam, April II, 1770 (2600 florins, bought in) ; according to Van Eynden and Van der Willigen, iii. 384. Acquired by Catherine II., Empress of Russia, for the Hermitage. In the Hermitage Palace, Petrograd, 1901 catalogue, No. 812."^[1]

References

1. Entry 206 for ''Flora in Hofstede de Groot, 1915

• Flora in the RKD
• Flora, in the Hermitage

Bibliography

• Michael Kitson: Rembrandt. Phaidon Press Inc., New York City 2007. ISBN 9780714827438, page 50