Bust of an Old Woman
Circle of Rembrandt van Rijn(–)

ca. early 1630s
oil on panel
14 x 11.7 cm
signed and dated in dark paint along upper
right: “Cp 16(??)” (“C” and “p” inmonogram)
RR-122© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
DeWitt, David. “Bust of an Old Woman” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/bust-of-an-old-woman/ (archivedMay 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

This haunting image of an old woman wearing a black, hooded garment that

Comparative Figuresdrapes over her shoulders is remarkably similar in appearance to an etching
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) made in 1628 of an aged woman withprofoundly wrinkled skin wearing a similar hooded cape that likewise casts a
shadow over her eyes (fig 1). In both the etching and the painting the woman
stares directly out at the viewer in a manner that emphasizes her deep-set
eyes and the straight lines of her nose and mouth. Rembrandt’s model
traditionally has been identified as his mother. This identification going backto the 1679 inventory of the Amsterdam print and map dealer Clement deJonghe (1624/5–77), in which an etching of this elderly woman, dated 1631,
is listed as “Rembrandt’s Mother.”[1] This same woman appears in a numberof other prints, drawings and paintings by Rembrandt and other artists
associated with him in Leiden during the late 1620s and early 1630s.

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Headof an Old Woman with a Cap,
1628, etching, state 2 of 2, 63 × 64mm, Rijksprentenkabinet,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no.
RP-P-1961-1195

It is highly likely that the identification of the model in this etching as
Rembrandt’s mother is correct. Not only did Clement de Jonghe know theartist personally, but he was also a passionate collector of Rembrandt’setchings and would have known much about them. Rembrandt’s mother,Neeltgen Willemsdr, was born around 1568, which means that she would
have been about 60 years old in the late 1620s, an appropriate age for thesitter in these images. Nevertheless, despite the close similarities between
Rembrandt’s etching of 1628 and the Leiden Collection painting, it is notcertain that the same individual is depicted in both works. In the painting thewoman has a more elongated face, more pronounced cheek bones, and aFig 2. X-radiograph of Bust of an© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Old Woman, RR-122

stronger jaw line than those of “Rembrandt’s mother.”
Despite these physiological differences, the compositional similarities
between Rembrandt’s etching of 1628 and this painting helped persuadeearlier scholars that this head study was an autograph painting byRembrandt. Strengthening that argument is the fact that these scholars
mistakenly read the monogram on the painting as an R. However, in various
publications from 1933 to 1966, Kurt Bauch cast doubt on that attribution,
proposing instead that this work was painted by Jan Lievens (1607–74) andretouched by Rembrandt.[2] Subsequently, Horst Gerson omitted the paintingfrom his 1969 Rembrandt monograph. In 1982, the Rembrandt ResearchFig 3. Detail of monogram at
upper right in Bust of an Old
Woman, RR-122 (photographcourtesy of Annette Rupprecht)

Project declared it a nineteenth-century imitation of Rembrandt.[3] This
assessment, however, is surely wrong, as subsequent dendrochronologicalanalysis has determined that the panel was available in the 1630s. The thin,translucent handling of paint, moreover, is characteristic of Leiden paintingsfrom the early 1630s. Who painted this work, however, is a question that isdifficult to answer. Despite the close stylistic and thematic connections toRembrandt and his workshop, the brushwork differs from that of any of theknown artists working in Leiden around 1630, including Rembrandt, Lievens,and Gerrit Dou (1613–75).
The artist who executed this work changed the woman’s expression during
the painting process. An X-radiograph reveals that he originally portrayed thewoman with parted lips, as though she was in the act of speaking, andmodeled both eyes with lead white paint, indicating that they were notoriginally meant to be cast in shadow (fig 2).[4] Why these changes wereFig 4. Pieter Codde, A Student
Smoking a Pipe, ca. 1630, oil onpanel, 46.2 × 33.4 cm, Palais desBeaux-Arts, Lille, Don Antoine
Brasseur, 1885, inv. P. 240

made is not known, but the result is that the woman’s expression is moresolemn and severe than originally conceived. Her black hooded cloak relates
closely to those worn by Roman Catholic lay sisters, known as klopjes.[5]Instead of being an R the monogram appears to be a lowercase P inscribed
inside a larger C (fig 3).[6] This monogram links the work to an enigmatic
painting in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, Student Smoking a Pipe (fig 4),
which has a similar inscription: a large P inscribed in a C. That painting haslong been attributed to Pieter Codde (1599–1678), mainly on this basis. But
the astonishing aesthetic performance of this work—in composition, color,light, description, and evocation of emotion—outstrips even the finest
examplesoftherespectably

talented

Amsterdam

genre

painter.

Furthermore, Codde’s typical monogram, with the C continuing the loop of
the P then proceeding back and downward, differs markedly from thatappearing in the Lille painting, and his authorship of that work is no longer© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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accepted.[7]The similarity of the monogram in the Leiden Collection painting appears toprovide strong evidence of a common but as of yet unidentified artist.
Nevertheless, caution about making that association is still necessary
because the appearance of these two paintings is so different.[8] The Lillepainting exhibits breathtaking coloristic sophistication, with controlledcontrasts of cool and warm hues, quite different from the overall grayish castof the Leiden Collection painting. The pulsating rhythms in the Lille painting,generated by bulky fabric forms and striking curved and angular contours,
find no parallel in the stark image of Bust of an Old Woman, which depends
more closely on Rembrandt’s models. The possibility of a workshop
connection between the Lille and Leiden Collection paintings—of master andpupil for instance—might explain the shared monogram, but such ahypothesis remains purely speculative.

- David de Witt, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old Woman
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

1. See Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 1: 1625–1631, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt REsearch Project (The Hague, 1982), 1: 274.
2. Kurt Bauch, Der frühe Rembrandt und seine Zeit (Berlin, 1960), 208.
3. Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 1: 1625–1631, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1982), 1: 681–84.
4. Gerbrand Korevaar asserted that the X-radiograph shows that the eyes originally weredowncast, as in Rembrandt’s print, but the dense patches of paint containing lead-white fall
too low to read as upper eyelids, and must have represented bulging lower orbicularis oculis
muscles, suggesting surprise.
5. For a depiction of a klopje, see Jan Steen, Woman Counting Coins, ca. 1665, in The Leiden
Collection, JS-101.
6. Gerbrand Korevaar in Rembrandts Mothery: Myth and Reality, ed. Christiaan Vogelaar andGerbrand Korevaar (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2005), 91,
wrongly asserts that the monogram and date are later additions.
7. See Fred Meijer, The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still Life Paintings Bequeathed byDaisy Linda Ward (Zwolle, 2003), 219. The museum now ascribes the work to an anonymous
follower of Rembrandt.
8. As urged by Fred Meijer in e-mail correspondence with the author, 2 November 2013.

ProvenanceGrand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna (1819–76); by descent to her daughter Elena Grigorevna
Stroganov; by descent to her children.
Mrs. Von Dehn, St. Petersburg, by 1913.
Dr. Tobias Christ, Basel, by 1928.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 29 October 1998, no. 10, as Manner of Rembrandt).
[Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, 2005].
From whom purchased by the present owner.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Basel, Basel Art Association, “Ausstellung von Kunstwerken des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus
basler Privatbesitz,” 15 April–28 May 1928, no. 145 [lent by Dr. Tobias Christ, Basel, as byRembrandt].
Basel, Fine Arts Museum, “Meisterwerke holländischer Malerei des 16. bis 18.
Jahrhunderts,” 23 June–19 August 1945, no. 74 [lent by a private collection, Basel, as byRembrandt].
Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal, “Rembrandt als Leermeester,” 1 June–1 September 1956,
no. 5 [lent by a private collection, Switzerland, as by Rembrandt].
Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal, “Rembrandts Moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid,” 16 December
2005–19 March 2006, no. 6 [lent by Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, as circle of Rembrandt].

References
Wrangel, Baron H. H. The Legacy of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna. St. Petersburg, n.p.
[ca. 1913], 56, no. 22 (as by Rembrandt).
Von Liphart, Ernst Friedrich. “Reiseeindrücke.” Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst 13 (1913):
272–73 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Die Kunst des jungen Rembrandt. Heidelberg, 1933, 220 (as by Jan Lievens andRembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: Schilderijen. Utrecht, 1935, no. 65 (as by Rembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. Vienna, 1937, no. 65 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. “Rembrandt und Lievens.” Wallraf-Richardtz-Jahrbuch 11 (1939): 248–50, no.
169 (as by Jan Lievens and Rembrandt).
Van Gelder, Jan Gerrit, Horst Gerson, Ary Bob de Vries, Jan Nicolas van Wessem, and Joop
M. Joosten, eds. Rembrandt als Leermeester. Exh. cat. Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal.
Leiden, 1956, 16, no. 5 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Der frühe Rembrandt und seine Zeit: Studien zur geschichtlichen Bedeutungseines Frühstils. Berlin, 1960, 208 (as by Jan Lievens, retouched by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. A 3 (as by Jan Lievens, retouched byRembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham, and Horst Gerson. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.
London, 1969, no. 65 (as by an unknown follower, not Lievens or Rembrandt).
Bruyn, Josua, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 1: 1625–1631. Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. The Hague, Boston, and London, 1982, 681–84,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old Woman
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no. C 43 (as a nineteenth-century imitation of Rembrandt).
Korevaar, Gerbrandt, and Christian Vogelaar, eds. Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and REality.
Exh. cat. Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal. Zwolle, 2005, 88–91, no. 6 (as circle of Rembrandt).
Schnackenburg, Bernhard. Jan Lievens: Friend and Rival of the Young Rembrandt.
Petersberg, 2016, 81–82, 456, no. D2, as by Dirck Lievens.
Bijl, Martin. “Gerrit Dou as a Pupil of Rembrandt.” In Rembrandt and his Circle: Insights andDiscoveries. Edited by Stephanie S. Dickey, 176–77, no. 7.8 (as attributed to Gerrit Dou).
Amsterdam, 2017.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak with a narrow wood addition
along the lower edge, has been thinned, marouflaged, and cradled.[1] The lower edge of the woodaddition, extended composition, and cradle has been trimmed. The lower ends of the four fixedvertical battens have been cut at sharp bevels, and the lowest horizontal batten has been cut inhalf and is now secured with brads. No wax collection seals, paper labels, import stamps or panel
maker’s mark are along the marouflage panel or cradle.
Dendrochronology of the plank has proved inconclusive, as Peter Klein’s findings in 2008 and Ian
Tyers’s in 2010 arrived at significantly different evaluations. Klein identifies the plank as oak fromthe Baltic/Polish region with a plausible first use date of 1634, whereas according to Tyers, thetree-ring sequence was not found to match eastern Baltic, western European, or other dated orundated reference data.[2]A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied and the paint has been built up insuccessive layers with visible brushwork through the background and low impasto through thewhite shirt. The composition has been extended onto the wood addition along the lower edge.
The painting is signed with a monogram, a small P inside a large C, and dated in dark paint along
the upper right. The monogram has been previously misidentified as an R. The painting wasconsistently listed in exhibition catalogues as being signed with “R” and dated 1627 upper rightand attributed to Rembrandt. This new interpretation of the monogram as a C and P has
suggested to some that the painting is by Pieter Codde.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s 2010 and Peter Klein’s 2008
dendrochronology reports.
2. Peter Klein writes: “An earliest felling date can be derived for the year 1626, more plausible is© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Bust of an Old WomanPage 8 of 8a felling date between 1629..1632….1636 + x. With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning anearliest creation of the painting is possible from 1628 upwards. Under the assumption of amedian of 15 sapwood rings and 2 years for seasoning a creation is plausible from 1634
upwards.”© 2020 The Leiden Collection