A Study for The Great Jewish Bride

Rembrandt created the Study for the Great Jewish Bride around 1635 as a preparatory drawing for his famous etching. The finished print depicts Queen Esther from the Old Testament, who approached King Ahasuerus to save the Jewish people from Haman's plot. Rembrandt cast his wife Saskia as the Jewish bride in this role-playing portrait.

The preparatory drawing, held in Stockholm (Benesch 292), shows Rembrandt working out the composition before committing to the copper plate. The etching became known as "The Great Jewish Bride" when an 18th-century collector used this title to distinguish it from a smaller etching of Saskia as Saint Catherine.