Elsje Christiaens

Who was Elsje Christiaens?

Elsje Christiaens was a Danish girl who, aged 18, confessed to having killed her landlady in Amsterdam and was executed. Her body was exhibited at the Volewijk, a field on the northern shore of the IJ, and Rembrandt van Rijn produced two drawings of it.

Shortly after Elsje had come to Amsterdam from her native Jutland to seek work as a maid, she got into an argument with her landlady at the Damrak because she couldn't pay the rent. The fight escalated, the landlady grabbed a broom, threatening to take Elsje's few belongings, while Elsje took up an axe, killing her opponent. She took a coat and some linen out of another guest's chest and fled, covered in blood. She jumped into the Damrak, but was pulled out of the water by passers-by. After her arrest and confession, she was sentenced to death by the city magistrates. Her public execution by strangling at a garrote took place at the Dam Square in Amsterdam. Her body and the ax she had used were then exhibited at a pranger in the Volewijk. There she was drawn by the 57-year-old Rembrandt, who by then had already buried two wives and three children.