© 2020 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, buffcolored laid 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,

2nded.

EditedbyArthurK.

WheelockJr.

NewYork,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/head-of-an-old-woman-rembrandts-mother/ (archived May 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.

© 2020 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

Comparative Figures

pointed nose, square jaw, and pursed lips seems formidable even given thesmall scale of the sheet of paper on which she is drawn. Jan Lievens has
rendered the ample headdress covering her hair and the heavy apparel overher shoulders that shield her body from the viewer’s eyes with quick andsupple lines of red and black chalk, but he has taken an entirely different
approach for the expressive face that leans forward toward the viewer. Thin,
delicately rendered lines define the woman’s features and the wrinkles ofage 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 formany years. It was formerly attributed to Nicolaes Maes (1634–93), a pupil ofFig 1. Jan Lievens, Old
Woman Reading, ca. 1625, 81 x
69 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
SK-A-4702

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) in the late 1640s and early 1650s. In 1980,
however, Sumowski ascribed it, with reservation, to Gerrit Dou (1613–75),
during the period that Dou was studying with Rembrandt in Leiden(1625–31). Sumowski’s association of the drawing with works created inLeiden during those years is correct, but the style of the drawing is consistent
with Jan Lievens, not Dou. Reinforcing an attribution to Lievens is the direct
correspondence that exists between this figure and the model for theprophetess Anna in his painting Old Woman Reading, ca. 1625 (fig 1).[1]Anna wears a similar headdress, which falls loosely over her shoulders, andhas similar facial features: a slightly pointed nose, a wrinkled face andforehead, and thin lips that hang down at the corners.[2] The model, evidently
a woman from the artists’ circle, has often been identified as Rembrandt’s

Fig 2. Jan Lievens, Bust of an Old
Man, ca. 1628, red and blackchalk, 137 x 116 mm, Private
Collection, The Hague

mother, but this identification is uncertain.[3]When Rembrandt and Lievens were working in Leiden, they both madedrawings in red and black chalk, sometimes on yellowish, light-brown,prepared paper. This technique, which they adopted from their teacher,
Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), can be seen in Lastman’s drawings from theearly 1620s, which include several preparatory studies for paintings.[4] Headof an Old Woman is also executed on this paper, as is another drawing byLievens, Bust of an Old Man (fig 2), which has a drapery study on its
verso.[5]An excellent example of Rembrandt’s manner of drawing during the late1620s that offers a point of comparison with Lievens’s drawing technique is
his Seated Old Man with a Book, which he drew in red and black chalk,heightened with white, on yellowish, light-brown, prepared paper (fig 3).

[6]

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Seated
Old Man with a Book, 1628, redand black chalk, heightened withwhite, on yellowish, light-brown© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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The drawing served as a preparatory study for the figure of Peter in themaster’s Peter and Paul Disputing, a painting in Melbourne dated ca. 1628.[7]paper, 296 x 211 mm, Staatliche
Museen, Kupferstichkabinett,Berlin, inv. KdZ 5284

Despite the importance of line in this drawing, it is executed more tonallythan is Lievens’s drawing. Lievens’s line plays a more independent role, ismore descriptive in character, and is rather decorative, particularly in therendering of clothing. It is not as essential to the design, nor does it create
the consistent lighting effects or plasticity seen in Rembrandt’s drawingstyle.
Lievens’s linear style is also encountered in other drawings (and prints) fromhis Leiden period, such as Old Woman in Half-Length Profile, Facing Left inBoston.[8] As in Head of an Old Woman, in the Boston drawing Lievens has
used a network of fine lines to depict the facial features (as he did in Bust ofan Old Man), and in both works he has accentuated the contour of thewoman’s headdress above her forehead. The linear, descriptive character ofthe features can also be seen in one of Lievens’s most Rembrandtesquedrawings, Bearded Old Man in Profile in Washington.[9]The place of Head of an Old Woman in Lievens’s oeuvre can behypothesized by comparing it with Rembrandt’s comparable studies.
Rembrandt’s portrait drawing of an old woman in Ulm, executed in pen andbrush,[10] may have originated in the same period as the two etched portraits
he made of his “mother” of 1628.[11] It seems likely that Lievens’s drawing
should be dated to approximately the same time, around 1628, the year inwhich Rembrandt also executed his Seated Old Man with a Book.

- Peter Schatborn, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 5 of 10Endnotes

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 theDifference (Exh. cat. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum) (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 intwo paintings 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 ofRembrandt 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.; ChristianTico Seifert, Pieter Lastman. Studien zu Leben und Werk. Mit einem kritischen Verzeichnis
der Werke mit Themen aus der antiken Mythologie und Historie (Petersberg, 2011), 177–215.
5. Recently the verso of that drawing was attributed to Lastman, but that attribution cannot becorrect since its style differs from Lastman’s red-chalk drawings, which are less linear incharacter. See Christian Tico Seifert, Pieter Lastman. Studien zu Leben und Werk. Mit einem
kritischen Verzeichnis der Werke mit Themen aus der antiken Mythologie undHistorie (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.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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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. 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 with Those ofRembrandt,” 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 wasattributed to Rembrandt by Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed. Eva Benesch, 6vols. (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 ofRembrandt,” Master Drawings 49 (2011): 361–63. This drawing probably dates to the early
1630s since it was inspired 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 (NewYork, 1994), B 352 and B 354.

Provenance“P. H.” Collection.
Eugene Rodriguez Collection (his sale, F. Muller, Amsterdam, 21 November 1929, no. 17, asby Nicolaes Maes).
Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam (his sale, Sotheby’s Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 17
November 1975, no. 139, as by Nicolaes Maes).
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
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F. W. A. Knight Collection (his sale, Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 29 October 1979,no. 25, as by 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.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Houthakker Gallery, “Dessins anciens: Français, hollandais, italien exposéschez Bernard Houthakker,” July–August 1952, no. 50 (as by Nicolaes Maes).
Amsterdam, Houthakker Gallery, “Exposition de dessins et eaux-fortes de Rembrandt et deson entourage et quelques tableaux de ses contemporains,” Summer 1956, no. 70 (as byNicolaes Maes).
Amsterdam,

Rijksprentenkabinet,“Deverzameling

vanBernard

Houthakker,”

August–November 1964, no. 57 (as by Nicolaes Maes [lent by Bernard Houthakker]).
Amsterdam,MuseumHetRembrandthuis,“JanLievens,1607–1674:Prenten&Tekeningen,” 5 November 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 Mystery of 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. KlaverHeinkens].
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, “Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling theDifference,” 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: RembrandtEmerges,” 24 August–1 December 2019, no. 9 [lent by the present owner].

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 8 of 10References
Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Dessins anciens: français, hollandais, italien exposés chez
Bernard Houthakker. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Amsterdam, 1952,
no. 50 (as by Nicolaes Maes).
Bernard Houthakker Gallery. Exposition de dessins et eaux-fortes de Rembrandt et de son
entourage et quelques 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. Amsterdam, 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. Deverzameling 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 anInterpretation.” In Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of their Time: Recent Perspectives:
Papers from The Pennsylvania State University Volume XI. Edited by Roland Fleischer andSusan 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 by Ernst 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, National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis. New Haven, 2008, 233, under no. 95.
Hendrix, Lee. “Bust of an Old Woman, ca. 1628–30.” In Drawings by Rembrandt and His© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 9 of 10

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(February 2011): 99–100.
Rubinstein, Gregory. “Brief Encounter: The Early Drawings of Jan Lievens and Their
Relationship with Those of Rembrandt.” Master Drawings 49 (2011): 358, no. 13.
Schnackenburg, Bernhard. Jan Lievens: Friend and Rival of the Young Rembrandt.
Petersberg, 2016, 298, no. 113.
Savatier Sjöholm, Olivia. “Rembrandt’s Drawings: Pedagogy Lessons and Vehicles ofArtistic Dialogue.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara YeagerCrasselt, 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 SeventeenthCentury Leiden.” In Anonymous Portraits: Dutch Seventeenth-Century Tronies. Sales cat.
Nicholas Hall. New York, 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 asilk 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 andblack chalk. A small smudge in the red chalk along the left side of the lower central area of theshadow of the hat, where it meets the figure’s forehead, probably occurred in the working
process. Slight smudging along the upper right corner, in the reserve at the center of the rightside, at the lower right corner, and at the lower left corner are from handling.
The drawing is stamped with initials in an oval cartouche along the lower left.
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Head of an Old Woman: “Rembrandt’s Mother”
Page 10 of 10The drawing has not undergone conservation treatment since acquisition and remains in an
excellent state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

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

© 2020 The Leiden Collection