© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’sMother”

ca. 1628
red and black chalk on yellow-hued, buff-coloredlaid paper
10.8 x 8.5 cm
collector’s mark, lower left: “P.H.”
JL-103

Jan Lievens(Leiden 1607 – 1674 Amsterdam)

How to cite
Schatborn, Peter. “Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed.
EditedbyArthurK.

WheelockJr.

andLaraYeager-Crasselt.

NewYork,

2020–23.

https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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With an intense gaze animating her stern visage, this elderly woman with pointed

Comparative Figuresnose, square jaw, and pursed lips seems formidable even given the small scale of thesheet of paper on which she is drawn. Jan Lievens has rendered the ample headdress
covering her hair and the heavy apparel over her shoulders that shield her body fromthe viewer’s eyes with quick and supple lines of red and black chalk, but he has taken
an entirely different approach for the expressive face that leans forward toward theviewer. Thin, delicately rendered lines define the woman’s features and the wrinkles
of age that cross her forehead, circle her eyes, and draw the mouth down to its create
its serious and uncompromising expression.
The attribution of this compelling drawing has been the subject of debate for manyyears. It was formerly attributed to Nicolaes Maes (1634–93), a pupil of Rembrandt
van Rijn (1606–69) in the late 1640s and early 1650s. In 1980, however, Sumowski

Fig 1. Jan Lievens, Old
Woman Reading, ca. 1625, 81 x 69
cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-4702

ascribed it, with reservation, to Gerrit Dou (1613–75), during the period that Dou wasstudying with Rembrandt in Leiden (1625–31). Sumowski’s association of thedrawing with works created in Leiden during those years is correct, but the style ofthe drawing is consistent with Jan Lievens, not Dou. Reinforcing an attribution toLievens is the direct correspondence that exists between this figure and the model forthe prophetess Anna in his painting Old Woman Reading, ca. 1625 (fig 1).[1] Anna
wears a similar headdress, which falls loosely over her shoulders, and has similar
facial features: a slightly pointed nose, a wrinkled face and forehead, and thin lipsthat hang down at the corners.[2] The model, evidently a woman from the artists’circle, has often been identified as Rembrandt’s mother, but this identification isuncertain.[3]When Rembrandt and Lievens were working in Leiden, they both made drawings inFig 2. Jan Lievens, Bust of an Old
Man, ca. 1628, red and black chalk,
137 x 116 mm, Private Collection,
The Hague

red and black chalk, sometimes on yellowish, light-brown, prepared paper. Thistechnique, which they adopted from their teacher, Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), canbe seen in Lastman’s drawings from the early 1620s, which include several
preparatory studies for paintings.[4] Head of an Old Woman is also executed on thispaper, as is another drawing by Lievens, Bust of an Old Man (fig 2), which has adrapery study on its verso.[5]An excellent example of Rembrandt’s manner of drawing during the late 1620s thatoffers a point of comparison with Lievens’s drawing technique is his Seated Old Manwith a Book, which he drew in red and black chalk, heightened with white, on
yellowish, light-brown, prepared paper (fig 3).[6] The drawing served as a preparatory
study for the figure of Peter in the master’s Peter and Paul Disputing, a painting in
Melbourne dated ca. 1628.[7] Despite the importance of line in this drawing, it isexecuted more tonally than is Lievens’s drawing. Lievens’s line plays a moreFig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated Old
Man with a Book, 1628, red and blackchalk, heightened with white, on
yellowish, light-brown paper, 296 x© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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independent role, is more descriptive in character, and is rather decorative,
particularly in the rendering of clothing. It is not as essential to the design, nor does it

211 mm, Staatliche Museen,Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, inv. KdZ5284

create the consistent lighting effects or plasticity seen in Rembrandt’s drawing style.
Lievens’s linear style is also encountered in other drawings (and prints) from his
Leiden period, such as Old Woman in Half-Length Profile, Facing Left in Boston.[8]As in Head of an Old Woman, in the Boston drawing Lievens has used a network offine lines to depict the facial features (as he did in Bust of an Old Man), and in bothworks he has accentuated the contour of the woman’s headdress above her forehead.
The linear, descriptive character of the features can also be seen in one of Lievens’s
most Rembrandtesque drawings, Bearded Old Man in Profile in Washington.[9]The place of Head of an Old Woman in Lievens’s oeuvre can be hypothesized bycomparing it with Rembrandt’s comparable studies. Rembrandt’s portrait drawing ofan old woman in Ulm, executed in pen and brush,[10] may have originated in the same
period as the two etched portraits he made of his “mother” of 1628.[11] It seems likelythat Lievens’s drawing should be dated to approximately the same time, around 1628,
the year in which Rembrandt also executed his Seated Old Man with a Book.

- Peter Schatborn, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 5 of 9Endnotes
1. Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar, eds., Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality (Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Leiden, 2005), no. 2, repro., dated ca. 1625–26; Holm Bevers,ed., Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference (Exh. cat. Los Angeles, J. Paul GettyMuseum) (Los Angeles, 2009), 50, fig. 1b.
2. We encounter the same model in a painting in Dresden, which Sumowski considers a copy after Lievens(and dates to 1629), though Kurt Bauch and Bernhard Schnackenburg see it as an original by the artist.
See Kurt Bauch, “Zum Werk des Jan Lievens (II),” Pantheon 25 (1967): 266, fig. 25; and Werner
Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3: no. 1272. Kindly
communicated by Bernhard Schnackenburg.
3. Sumowski observes that a similar old woman wearing the same kind of headdress occurs in twopaintings that Rembrandt made in 1626: Tobit and Anna with a Kid (oil on panel, 40.1 x 29.9 cm.,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. A 4717) and Musical Company (oil on panel, 63.4 x 47.6 cm.,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. A 4674) (Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
1: 1625–1631, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1982), 1: no. A 3, repro.,and no. A 3, repro., respectively).
4. Astrid Tümpel and Peter Schatborn, Pieter Lastman: leermaster van Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Museum het Rembrandthuis) (Amsterdam, 1991), nos. 30–33, repro.; Christian Tico Seifert, PieterLastman. Studien zu Leben und Werk. Mit einem kritischen Verzeichnis der Werke mit Themen aus derantiken Mythologie und Historie (Petersberg, 2011), 177–215.
5. Recently the verso of that drawing was attributed to Lastman, but that attribution cannot be correct since
its style differs from Lastman’s red-chalk drawings, which are less linear in character. See ChristianTico Seifert, Pieter Lastman. Studien zu Leben und Werk. Mit einem kritischen Verzeichnis der Werke mitThemen aus der antiken Mythologie und Historie (Petersberg, 2011), 229, fig. 253.
6. Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London and New York, 1973), 1:
no. 7, fig. 12; Holm Bevers, Rembrandt: Die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinet (Ostfildern,2006), no. 1, repro.
7. Panel, 72.3 x 59.5 cm, formerly dated 1628, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, cat. 1961, no.
349/4; Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 1: 1625–1631, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 1: no. A 13.
8. Pen and brown ink, touches of gray wash, over traces of black chalk, 147 x 132 mm, Maida and George
Abrams Collection. Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), no. 96, repro.; William Walker Robinson and Peter Sutton,
Drawings by Rembrandt, His Students and Circle from the Maida and George Abrams Collection (Exh.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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cat. Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum) (Greenwich, 2011), no. 15, repro., with earlier literature;
Gregory Rubinstein, “Brief Encounter: The Early Drawings of Jan Lievens and Their Relationship withThose of Rembrandt,” Master Drawings 49 (2011): 363–64, ca. 1628.
9. Red chalk with touches of black chalk (recto), with Drapery Study (verso), red chalk, 137 x 138 mm,National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.11. The
attribution of this drawing has been a matter of debate over the years. It was attributed to Rembrandt by
Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 1: no. 42, fig. 47;
and Martin Royalton-Kisch, “Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils,” Burlington Magazine 153(February 2011): 100. The attribution to Lievens has been made by Peter Schatborn, ed., Jan Lievens,
1607–1674: Prenten & Tekeningen (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Amsterdam,1988), 6; Holm Bevers, ed., Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference (Exh. cat. Los
Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum) (Los Angeles, 2009), no. 2.4., repro.; and Gregory Rubinstein, “Brief
Encounter: The Early Drawings of Jan Lievens and Their Relationship with Those of Rembrandt,”
Master Drawings 49 (2011): 361–63. This drawing probably dates to the early 1630s since it wasinspired by figure studies in red chalk by Rembrandt that are dated 1630 and 1631. See Otto Benesch,
The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 1: nos. 20, 37, and 40.
10. Bust of an Old Woman, pen and brown ink, brown wash, touched with white, 122 x 122 mm,
Ulmermuseum, Ulm, Strölin bequest; Peter Schatborn, ed., Jan Lievens, 1607–1674: Prenten &Tekeningen (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Amsterdam, 1988), no. 10, repro.
11. Gary Schwartz, The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt: Reproduced in Original Size (New York, 1994), B
352 and B 354.

Provenance“P. H.” Collection.
Eugene Rodriguez Collection (his sale, F. Muller, Amsterdam, 21 November 1929, no. 17, as by
Nicolaes Maes).
Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam (his sale, Sotheby’s Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 17 November 1975,
no. 139, as by Nicolaes Maes).
F. W. A. Knight Collection (his sale, Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 29 October 1979, no. 25, asby Nicolaes Maes).
Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam; by descent to Mrs. M. P. Klaver-Heinkens.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2008, no. 27; [Haboldt & Co, Paris].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Houthakker Gallery, “Dessins anciens: Français, hollandais, italien exposés chez Bernard
Houthakker,” July–August 1952, no. 50 (as by Nicolaes Maes).
Amsterdam, Houthakker Gallery, “Exposition de dessins et eaux-fortes de Rembrandt et de son
entourage et quelques tableaux de ses contemporains,” Summer 1956, no. 70 (as by Nicolaes Maes).
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, “De verzameling van Bernard Houthakker,” August–November 1964,no. 57 (as by Nicolaes Maes [lent by Bernard Houthakker]).
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, “Jan Lievens, 1607–1674: Prenten & Tekeningen,” 5November 1988–8 January 1989, no. 11 [lent by Jacobus A. Klaver].
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, “Rembrandt en Lievens in Leiden: ‘Een jong en edelschildersduo,’” 4 December 1991–1 March 1992, no. 21 [lent by Jacobus A. Klaver].
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, “Tekeningen van oude meesters: De verzameling Jacobus A. Klaver,”8 May–25 July 1993, no. 34 [lent by Jacobus A. Klaver].
Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, “The Mysteryof the Young Rembrandt,” 3 November 2001–27 January 2002; Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis, 20 February–26 May 2002, no. 20 [lent by Mrs. M. P. Klaver-Heinkens].
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, “Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference,”
9 December 2009–28 February 2010, no. 1.3 [lent by the present owner].
Norfolk, Virginia, Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, August
2010–January 2011 [lent by the present owner].
New York, The Morgan Library and Museum, “Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece,” 3 June–18 September,2016 [lent by the present owner].
Kingston, Queen’s University, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, “Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges,”
24 August–1 December 2019, no. 9 [lent by the present owner].

References
Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Dessins anciens: français, hollandais, italien exposés chez Bernard
Houthakker. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Amsterdam, 1952, no. 50 (as byNicolaes Maes).
Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Exposition de dessins et eaux-fortes de Rembrandt et de son entourage etquelques tableaux de ses contemporains. Exh. cat., Amsterdam, Bernard Houthakker Gallery.
Amsterdam, 1956, no. 70 (as by Nicolaes Maes).
Niemeijer, J. W. De verzameling van Bernard Houthakker. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 8 of 9Amsterdam, 1964, 25–26, no. 57, as by Nicolaes Maes.
Sumowski, Werner. Drawings of the Rembrandt School. Edited and Translated by Walter L. Strauss. 3:1168, no. 539xx, as attributed to Gerard Dou. 10 vols. New York, 1979–92.
Schatborn, Peter. Dutch Figure Drawings from the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Rijksprentenkabinet; Washington, National Gallery of Art. The Hague, 1981, 139, under no. 64.
Schatborn, Peter, ed. Jan Lievens, 1607–1674, Prenten & Tekeningen. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum
Het Rembrandthuis. Amsterdam, 1988, 34–35, no. 11.
Vogelaar, Christiaan, ed. Rembrandt en Lievens in Leiden: “een jong en edel schildersduo.” Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle-Leiden, 1991, no. 21.
Schapelhouman, Marijn and Peter Schatborn. Tekeningen van oude meesters. De verzameling Jacobus A.
Klaver. Exh. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet. Zwolle, 1993, 78–79, 238, no. 34.
Wurfbain, Maarten. “The Soothsayer by Jan Lievens in Berlin: An Attempt at an Interpretation.” In
Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of their Time: Recent Perspectives: Papers from The Pennsylvania StateUniversity Volume XI. Edited by Roland Fleischer and Susan C. Scott, 234–50, fig. 9–4. 11 vols.
University Park, 1997.
De Heer, Ed. “Bust of an Old Woman, c. 1628/30.” In The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt. Edited byErnst van de Wetering and Bernhard Schnackenburg, 180–81, no. 20. Exh. cat. Kassel, Staatliche
Museen Kassel Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe; Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis. Wolfratshausen, 2001.
Vogelaar, Christiaan and Gerbrandt Korevaar, eds. Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality, Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden-Zwolle, 2005, 103, under no. 13, fig. 85.
Wheelock Jr., Arthur K., ed. Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered. Exh. cat. Washington, NationalGallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. NewHaven, 2008, 233, under no. 95.
Hendrix, Lee. “Bust of an Old Woman, ca. 1628–30.” In Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling
the Difference. Edited by Holm Bevers, 48–51, 251, no. 1.3. Exh. cat. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty
Museum. Los Angeles, 2009.
Royalton-Kisch, Martin. “From Lievens to Rembrandt.” Master Drawings 48 (2009): 509–11, n. 12.
Royalton-Kisch, Martin. Catalogue of Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils in theBritishMuseum.

Onlinecatalogue,2010,underno.73,n.

6.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/rembrandt_drawings/drawings_by_rembrandt.aspx.
Royalton-Kisch, Martin. “Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils.” Burlington Magazine 153 (February2011): 99–100.
Rubinstein, Gregory. “Brief Encounter: The Early Drawings of Jan Lievens and Their Relationship withThose of Rembrandt.” Master Drawings 49 (2011): 358, no. 13.
Schnackenburg, Bernhard. Jan Lievens: Friend and Rival of the Young Rembrandt. Petersberg, 2016,© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Page 9 of 9298, no. 113.
Savatier Sjöholm, Olivia. “Rembrandt’s Drawings: Pedagogy Lessons and Vehicles of ArtisticDialogue.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection
and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 44. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi,Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. “Making Faces: The Development of the Tronie in Seventeenth-Century
Leiden.” In Anonymous Portraits: Dutch Seventeenth-Century Tronies. Sales cat. Nicholas Hall. NewYork, 2019, 12, fig. 4.
Coutré, Jacquelyn N., Ed. Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges. Exh. cat. Kingston, Agnes
Etherington; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta; Hamilton, Art Gallery of Hamilton. Kingston, 2019,162-65, no. 9.

Technical Summary
The support, a yellow-hued, buff-colored, lightly textured laid paper, has been secured between a silk mat
and a backboard. The support’s tonality is uniform, with the exception of a slightly lighter circular area above
the stamp along the lower left. The composition has been drawn in red and black chalk. A small smudge inthe red chalk along the left side of the lower central area of the shadow of the hat, where it meets the figure’sforehead, probably occurred in the working process. Slight smudging along the upper right corner, in thereserve at the center of the right side, at the lower right corner, and at the lower left corner are fromhandling.
The drawing is stamped with initials in an oval cartouche along the lower left.
The drawing has not undergone conservation treatment since acquisition and remains in an excellent state ofpreservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based on 2009 examination report by Marjorie Shelley, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge,Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photograph Conservation, Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection