Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her
Hands Clasped

1660

Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)

77.7 x 64.8 cm

oil on canvas
Signed and dated at center right: “Rembrandt f.
1660”
RR-113© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. "Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped."
In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(accessed March 2, 2018).
This page is available on the site's Archive. PDF of every version of this page is available on the Archive,
and the Archive is managed by a permanent URL. Archival copies will never be deleted. New versions areadded only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped
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Rembrandt painted this powerfully expressive portrait of an elderly woman

Comparative Figuresin 1660, at a time when he was exploring, as no artist had ever really done,
the depth of the human soul. The woman’s rugged face, with its
pronounced cheekbones, forceful chin, and generous nose, has greatstrength of character, but Rembrandt reveals the fullness of her inner life
through her furrowed brow and deeply sunken eyes, which gaze fixedly
into the distance. With bold brushwork Rembrandt suggests the aged
character of her skin, not through definition of wrinkles but through theirregularities of its surface. Strokes of all types and colors—ochers, pinks,
whites—merge, blend, and overlay in ways that defy description, as heoften used a wet-into-wet painting technique.[1] Seated alertly in anarmchair in a darkened chamber with stark plaster walls, and with her
hands in her lap, she is physically at rest but emotionally and spirituallyengaged, alone with her thoughts.

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Old
Woman in a Chair, 1654, oil oncanvas, 109 x 84 cm, State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, Scala / Art Resource,NY

During the last two decades of his life, Rembrandt turned increasingly tothe half-length depiction of elderly figures.[2] He portrayed these figures inmoments of contemplation, as with Seated Woman with Her Hands
Clasped, sometimes reflecting inner anxieties, and sometimes a quiet
spirituality. They often lack any narrative context or accompanying
attribute, making it difficult to determine, as in the slightly earlier Old
Woman in a Chair (fig 1),[3] whether they are portraits or depictions ofhistorical, biblical, or mythological figures.[4] The aged men and women inthese late paintings have the physical and emotional immediacy of figures
painted from life, but they often occupy a realm between portraiture andcharacter study. As one scholar has observed, with these works
Rembrandt created a separate genre of painting.[5]The sitter portrayed in Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped has not

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, The
Apostle Simon, 1661, oil oncanvas, 98.5 x 79 cm, Kunsthaus
Zürich, Ruzicka-Foundation,
1949, © Kunsthaus Zürich

been identified, and, indeed, the painting is undoubtedly more a characterstudy than a formal portrait.[6] Rembrandt captured her individuality in his
depiction of her physical features—the slight cleft in her chin, small mouth,
broad nose, and weathered hands. Her fur-trimmed jacket with its velvet
sleeves and the black hood differ slightly from the clothing seen in
Rembrandt’s other portrayals of elderly women in the late 1650s and early1660s.[7] In contrast to his vigorous modeling of the woman’s face andhands, he only summarily indicates her costume. Loosely appliedbrushstrokes evoke the softness of the brown fur, while, with the exceptionof a golden yellow highlight on the trim at her wrist, her sleeves and skirt© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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are more suggested than defined.[8]Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped has a distinguished provenancethat reaches back to the important English collector Sir Abraham HumeFig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Portrait of Margaretha de Geer,
Wife of Jacob Trip, ca. 1661, oilon canvas, 130.5 x 97.5 cm,
National Gallery, London, inv.
no. NG1675, © National Gallery,
London / Art Resource, NY(1749–1838), and it was first catalogued as by Rembrandt in his collectionin 1824.[9] The attribution of the painting to Rembrandt was confirmed by
the German art historian Wilhelm von Bode when he published thispainting as being by the master in 1900, and all subsequent publishedopinions have fully supported this attribution.[10] In recent decades, somescholars have privately expressed doubts about its attribution, suggestingthat it was executed by one of Rembrandt’s pupils, but these reservations
are unfounded.[11]Many stylistic and technical considerations with Rembrandt’s paintingsfrom around 1660 support the attribution to the master. In The Apostle
Simon from 1661 (fig 2), a work likely conceived as part of a series of
apostles and evangelists that Rembrandt executed between 1657 andFig 4. Rembrandt van Rijn, Studyof a Woman in a White Cap,
RR-101

1661, a muted, earth-toned palette and sweeping, loose brushwork
convey a sober, moving image of this Christian martyr.[12] Head turned andeyes downcast, one hand grasping the handle of a large saw and the otherresting on his lap, Simon focuses his attention elsewhere. But as inSeated
Woman with Her Hands Clasped, Rembrandt was able to make the figure
remarkably present in his physical and emotional state. Technicalexamination of the Leiden Collection work has shown that Rembrandt built
up the structure of the old woman’s hands in a manner similar to that in
The Apostle Simon, using horizontal, linear strokes of white paint,
particularly in the fingers of the left hand.[13]The Portrait of Margaretha de Geer (fig 3), which was executed about thesame time, evokes a familiar contrast of corporeal fragility with innerstrength. Although Rembrandt approached this formally commissioned
portrait in a more controlled fashion than he did Seated Woman with Her
Hands Clasped, he similarly applied grays, pinks, and yellows to animate
the appearance of Margaretha’s aging skin. He likewise defined hereyebrows and forehead with a series of short, diagonal brushstrokes, andleft the cool gray underlayer visible around the eyes to enhance theappearance of shadows.[14] Rembrandt had already used this technique tocreate shadows around the eyes in his Self-Portrait of 1659 (Washington,
National Gallery of Art), as well as in A Young Man Seated at a Table© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped
Page 5 of 13(Possibly Govaert Flinck) (Washington, National Gallery of Art, ca. 1660),
though in a more restrained manner.[15] This latter painting, significantly,
depicts the same unusual stone window ledge visible behind the woman in
the Leiden Collection painting.[16]Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped is the first work from
Rembrandt’s late career to enter The Leiden Collection, and hence
expands its ability to present the full scope of this extraordinary master’s
career.[17] In particular, this painting’s acquisition enables the collection todemonstrate how the depiction of aged sitters continued to captivate
Rembrandt, from his early Leiden period in the late 1620s to the1660s.[18] This interest is seen, for example, in Study of a Woman in a
White Cap (RR-101, (fig 4)) from about 1640, where Rembrandt has
similarly captured the effects of age in his depiction of wrinkles, loose skin,and heavy contours beneath the eyes.[19] As Joachim von Sandrart,
Rembrandt’s contemporary in Amsterdam, later wrote in 1675, “in the
depiction of old people, particularly their hair and skin, [Rembrandt]
showed great diligence, patience and practice … he indeed excels, not only
grandly rendering the simplicity of nature but using natural forces to color,heighten and embellish it, particularly in his half-length pictures of oldheads.”[20] In Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped, Rembrandt
succeeded in capturing his sitter with an honest stillness and innerstrength, where the unhesitating brushwork that defined his late careergave form to the effects of time’s passing.
- Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt-2018© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. A wet-into-wet technique is visible in the flesh tones, whereas wet-over-dry methods arepresent in larger areas of the composition. See the Technical Report written by Kristin
deGhetaldi on file at The Leiden Collection.
2. For an overview of these works, many of which have been more recently attributed toRembrandt’s workshop, see Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the
Paintings, ed. Horst Gerson (London, 1969), nos. 270, 274, 282, 283, 285, 361, 371, 381,
383, 384, 385; Christian Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour , contributions by Astrid
Tümpel, trans. Edmund Jephcott et al. (Antwerp, 1993), 299–307, nos. 142, 152, A43, A47,
A52, A60, A61, A115; Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings: A New
Biography with All Accessible Paintings Illustrated in Colour (New York, 1985), 301–17. For
an investigation into Rembrandt’s late period, see Jonathan Bikker et al.,Rembrandt: The
Late Works (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London, 2014).
3. See Irina Sokolova and Emmanuel Starcky, eds., Rembrandt et son école: Collections duMusée de l’Ermitage de Saint-Pétersbourg (Exh. cat. Paris, Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon)(Paris, 2003), nos. 3, 89–91; Christiaan Vogelaar, Gerbrand Korevaar, and Anouk Janssen,
Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal)(Leiden and Zwolle, 2005), nos. 30, 139–140. The same women appears in several otherpaintings associated with Rembrandt’s workshop from the mid-1650s, including An Old
Woman with a Hood, 1654, oil on canvas, 74 x 63 cm, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts,
Moscow, inv. 2624, and Half-Length Figure of an Old Woman , ca. 1655, 75 x 65 cm,
National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, KMS3885. Rembrandt’s Old Woman Reading,
1655, oil on canvas, 78.7 x 66 cm, Drumlanrig Castle is the only work related to this groupwhose attribution is widely accepted.
4. An exception is Rembrandt’s series of religious portraits from the late 1650s and early1660s, which depicts half-length biblical figures often with some form of identifying attribute.
The use of the term “portrait” in this essay relies on the definition set forth by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. in his study of these religious portraits. Wheelock established that the qualities
of immediacy of these figures, both physically and emotionally, deem them portraits, though
they may differ in our conventional use of the term. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,
“Rembrandt’s Apostles and Evangelists,” in Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits, ed.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington, National Gallery of Art; Los Angeles, J. Paul
Getty Museum) (Chicago, 2005), 13–37.
5. See Christian Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour , contributions by Astrid Tümpel,trans. Edmund Jephcott et al. (Antwerp, 1993), 299–303. Tümpel broadly calls them“historical figures.” This characterization distinguishes these late paintings from thetronies that Rembrandt executed in Leiden in the 1620s and early 1630s, which were more
© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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closely associated with his studio practice. By this point, as Tümpel notes, these “studies ofheads had long since lost their original function as preparatory material for history paintings,
becoming a genre in their own right” (299). See also the discussion in Gary Schwartz,
Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings: A New Biography with All Accessible Paintings
Illustrated in Colour (New York, 1985), 304–15.
6. The description of the sitter in the literature has oscillated between “Portrait of an Old
Woman” and “Head of an Old Woman.” While the former suggests a portrait of a specificindividual, the latter accords more with the use of a study or tronie.
7. A number of the costumes worn by old women in Rembrandt’s paintings from this late period
share certain elements, such as the red velvet sleeves, white blouse beneath the jacket, andsome form of black hood or headdress. This particular dress, however, remains distinctive
within Rembrandt’s oeuvre.
8. For a discussion of Rembrandt’s brushwork and its reception at the end of his career, see
Jonathan Bikker and Anna Krekeler, “Experimental Technique: The Paintings,” in Jonathan
Bikker et al., Rembrandt: The Late Works (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery; Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum) (London, 2014), 132–51.
9. The painting was first exhibited as by Rembrandt in 1818 at the British Institution, London. It
was subsequently published as by Rembrandt in A descriptive catalogue of pictures
belonging to Sir Abraham Hume (London, 1824), 36, no. 113.
10. Wilhelm von Bode included RR-113 in his catalogue of Rembrandt’s paintings in 1900, and it
subsequently appeared in the Rembrandt studies published by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot,
Adolf Rosenberg, Abraham Bredius, Kurt Bauch, Horst Gerson, and Christopher Brown.
Brown has recently reconfirmed his opinion about RR-113’s full attribution to Rembrandt inpersonal correspondence with the authors. See References for full history.
11. The Leiden Collection painting has not been included in a number of recent Rembrandt
publications, most notably, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of
Rembrandt Paintings; Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings: A New
Biography with All Accessible Paintings Illustrated in Colour (New York, 1985); ChristianTümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour , contributions by Astrid Tümpel, trans. Edmund
Jephcott et al. (Antwerp, 1993); Jonathan Bikker et al., Rembrandt: The Late Works (Exh.
cat. London, National Gallery; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London, 2014). An unpublishedessay by Martin Bijl from 2008 (kept on file at The Leiden Collection) notes that the painting
was rejected by the Rembrandt Research Project on two occasions, both by the originalteam in the 1970s and later by Ernst van der Wetering in the late 1990s. Bijl’s essay, writtenwith the collaboration of Van der Wetering, rejects the attribution to Rembrandt based onwhat the authors cite as “the weak buildup of the face,” as well as weak handling of the
anatomy and rendering of textures. They attribute the work to a little-known pupil of
Rembrandt, Johannes Raven (1634–1662). This attribution, however, has little to justify it.
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No painted works of Raven’s survive, and only one signed drawing is associated with him.
Bijl and Van de Wetering express doubts about the authenticity of the signature, yet recent
technical analysis performed by Sotheby’s has confirmed that both the signature and thedate are integral to the original painting. Moreover, visual examination of the signature by
Kristin deGhetaldi for The Leiden Collection indicates that thin remnants of a gray-brown
paint layer extend over or alongside parts of the signature.
It is also important to note in this context that while Rembrandt ran a large workshop formuch of his career, very little is known about the nature of his studio in the late 1650s and1660s. For a discussion of the issues surrounding attribution to Rembrandt’s workshop, see
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Issues of Attribution in the Rembrandt Workshop,” in Dutch
Paintings2014),

oftheSeventeenthCentury ,NGA

OnlineEditions(Washington,https://www.nga.gov/research/online-editions/17th-century-dutch-paintings/essay-

issues-attribution-rembrandt.html.
12. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits (Exh. cat.
Washington, National Gallery of Art; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum) (Chicago, 2005),
no. 10.
13. A close comparison of the X-rays of the two paintings indicates the similarities in theexecution of the hands. See “Object Information: The Apostle Simon,” The Rembrandt
Database, http://www.rembrandtdatabase.org/Rembrandt/painting/59313/the-apostle-simon(accessed October 16, 2017). Both works also contain chalk-based grounds, which havebeen associated with fourteen other works by Rembrandt from the 1650s and 1660s. See
the Technical Report written by Kristin deGhetaldi on file at The Leiden Collection. The
scientific analysis of the painting was performed by John Twilley. For a discussion of the useof chalk grounds in Rembrandt’s workshop, see Karin Groen, “Grounds in Rembrandt’s
Workshop and in Paintings by His Contemporaries,” in Paintings in the Laboratory:
Scientific Examination for Art History and Conservation , ed. Esther van Duijn (London,2014), 21–49.
14. See the Technical Report written by Kristin deGhetaldi on file at The Leiden Collection. Thisapproach is also evident in the Small Margaretha de Geer from 1661 (London, National
Gallery), in which Rembrandt used a similar unblended, wet-into-wet painting technique tocapture the texture and colors of Margaretha’s aging skin.
15. The X-ray of RR-113 reveals, as in the Self-Portrait, that the brown lining of the fur trim was
first painted with long, white brushstrokes that were later glazed over with semitransparent
reddish-brown paint. The beret in the Self-Portrait also indicates white brushstrokes beneaththe dark paint. These observations were made by Kristin deGhetaldi. For the National
Gallery paintings, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Rembrandt van Rijn/Self-Portrait/1659” and“Rembrandt van Rijn/A Young Man Seated at a Table (Possibly Govaert Flinck) /c. 1660,”
in

Dutch

Paintings

oftheSeventeenthCentury ,NGA

OnlineEditions,© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped
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https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/79 (accessed October 13, 2017).
16. For a discussion of this element in the painting in the National Gallery, see Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr., “Rembrandt van Rijn/A Young Man Seated at a Table (Possibly Govaert
Flinck)/c. 1660,” in Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century , NGA Online Editions,
https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/79 (accessed October 13, 2017).
17. From the height of success in Amsterdam in the 1630s and 1640s, Rembrandt experienced
great personal and financial difficulties toward the end of his life, which included his
declaration of bankruptcy in 1656. While scholars have often seen Rembrandt’s art in theseyears as intimately tied to his personal circumstances, his work should not be read as adirect biographical manifestation of his difficulties. The most recent exhibition to explore thisperiod of the artist’s career has shown that it was in many ways his most independent, free,
and inventive. For Rembrandt’s work in The Leiden Collection, see Perry H. Chapman,“Rembrandt and The Leiden Collection,” in The Leiden Collection Catalogue, ed. Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. (New York, 2017), https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/. For an
examination of his late career, see Jonathan Bikker et al., Rembrandt: The Late Works (Exh.
cat. London, National Gallery; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London, 2014).
18. As a young artist, Rembrandt, along with Jan Lievens (1607–1674), often portrayed old men
and women in paintings, prints, and drawings, whether as individual tronies, studies in
preparation for larger history paintings, or in the guise of biblical figures. Two works in The
Leiden Collection associated with Rembrandt’s studio in the late 1620s, Rembrandt’s
Mother (JL-106) and Bust of an Old Woman (RR-122), provide yet another display of how
artists sought to capture the physical and emotional effects of old age.
19. There is also a remarkable similarity in the way that Rembrandt handled the paint along thefigures’ jawlines, using a series of strong, fluid brushstrokes to articulate the structure of theface and the texture of the skin.
20. Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der Edlen Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von1675, ed. A. R. Peltzer (Munich, 1925), 203.

Provenance
Sir Abraham Hume (1749–1838), London, by 1818; presumably by direct descent to his
great- grandson, Adelbert Wellington Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow (1844-–1921),
London, by 1899.
[Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, by 1900].
E.F. Milliken, New York (his sale, Christie’s, London, 31 May 1902, no. 41 [for £5,775 to
Donaldson]).
© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925), London [sold to F. Kleinberger, Paris, 11 June 1907].
[F. Kleinberger, Paris, 1907 (sold to Friedrich Ludwig von Gans, Frankfurt, 8 December1907)].
Friedrich Ludwig von Gans (1833-1920), Frankfurt.
[Bachstitz Gallery, New York, probably acquired from the above, by 1921; (sold to Mrs.
(Florence) Daniel Guggenheim and Daniel Guggenheim, 1930)].
Mrs. (Florence) Daniel Guggenheim (1863–1944), New York and Daniel Guggenheim(1856–1930), New York; by descent to their daughter, Gladys Eleanor Guggenheim Straus(1895–1980), wife of Roger W. Straus, New York.
Private Collection by 1977 [Agnew’s Gallery, London (Sotheby’s New York, 25 January
2017, no. 26, withdrawn); [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2017].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2017.

Exhibition History
London, British Institution, 1818, no. 121 [lent by Sir Abraham Hume].
London, Royal Academy, “Winter Exhibition: Works by Rembrandt,” 1899, no. 78 [lent byAdelbert Wellington Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow].
Paris, Sedelmeyer Gallery, 1900, no. 29.
London, Royal Academy, “Old Masters, deceased masters of the British School,
watercolours & chalk drawings,” 1907, no. 56 [lent by Sir George Donaldson].
Amsterdam, F. Muller & Co., 1907, no. 36.
New York, World’s Fair, “Masterpieces of Art,” 1939, no. 151, 310.
Yokohama, Fukuoka and Kyoto, “Rembrandt and the Bible”, 1986-87, no. 10.
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].

References
A descriptive catalogue of pictures belonging to Sir Abraham Hume . London, 1824, 36, no.
© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped
Page 11 of 13113, here and below as by Rembrandt.
Von Bode, Wilhelm, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. Rembrandt: beschreibendes
Verzeichniss seiner Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen: Geschichte seines
Lebens und seiner Kunst. 8 vols. Paris, 1897–1906, 4:564, no. 480.
Sedelmeyer, Charles. Catalogue of 100 Paintings. Paris, 1900, no. 29.
Herbert Slater, John. Art Sales of the Year 1902, being a record of the prices obtained at
auction for pictures and prints sold from October, 1901, to the end of the season 1902 .
London, 1903, 354, no. 2800.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . Edited andtranslated by Edward G. Hawke. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28. 6: 252, no. 498.
Rosenberg, Adolf. Rembrandt, Des Meisters Gemälde. Edited by Wilhelm R. Valentiner.
Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben. 3rd edition. Stuttgart and Berlin 1908, 496.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions . London, 1914, 3: 1004, no. 121, 1015, no.
78, 1017, no. 56.
Meldrum, David S. Rembrandt’s Paintings. New York, 1923, 201, no. 385.1.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. London, 1936, no. 396.
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 526.
Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt Paintings. Amsterdam, 1968, 436, no. 388, 503, 518, 522.
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings. Edited by Horst
Gerson. London, 1969, no. 396, 308.
Lecaldano, Paolo. Rembrandt, L’opera completa. Milan, 1969, 121, no. 409.
Brown, Christopher, Josua Bruyn, et. al. Rembrandt and the Bible. Exh. cat. Yokohama,
Sogo Museum of Art Fukuoka, Fukuoka Art Museum; Kyoto, Kyoto National Museum ofModern Art. Tokyo, 1986, 154, no. 10.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Seated Woman with Her Hands Clasped.” In
Rembrandt
and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection . Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt,
168, no. 74, 190. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China.
Beijing, 2017.
Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 182–83.

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Versions
1. After Rembrandt, Portrait of an Old Woman , oil on grey cardboard, Claude E. De Coen
Collection, Saint Cezaire sur Saigne, France [identified by Mr. Coen as a study for the
portrait in The Leiden Collection, dimensions not given].

2. After Rembrandt, Portrait, 19th century, oil on canvas, 47 x 40 cm (previously sold at Henry’s
Auktionhaus AG for 200 Euro at Henry’s Auktionshaus, Mutterstadt, 27 August, 2017).

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The original fabric support is a medium-weight, plain-weave canvas that has been lined onto aplain-weave canvas of slightly heavier weight. Along all four edges, traces of the original canvas
extend approximately half an inch over the existing tacking margins. Examination of the Xradiograph reveals pronounced cusping patterns only along the proper right edge, suggestingthat the proper left, top, and bottom edges may have been slightly cut down during a previous
restoration campaign.
Scientific analysis of paint cross-sections revealed that the ground consists primarily ofchalk;[1] at least fourteen works associated with Rembrandt dating to the 1650s and 1660s
possess grounds containing chalk.[2] There is a cool gray-colored underlayer visible in sectionsof the flesh; however, based on the samples that were collected from the painting, it is difficult toconfirm whether this layer is in fact a second ground layer.[3] No underdrawing can be detected,
although a dark brown underpainting can be seen in some areas of the picture, most noticeably
along the proper left edge in the background, along the contours of the hands, and around the
periphery of the face.[4]The oil paint has been applied using both wet-into-wet techniques (as can be seen in the flesh
tones) and wet-over-dry methods in larger sections of the composition (such as in the
background). The highlights in the clothing, flesh tones, and fur lining of the costume are more
thickly painted; opaque, broad brushstrokes are visible in these sections and are often
associated with subtle impasto. Thinner applications were used to build up the darker sections of
the sitter’s clothing as well as the background. The paint stratigraphy in the section containing
the signature is not straightforward; thin remnants of a gray-brown paint layer can be seen
extending over and/or alongside sections of the signature.[5]The painting is covered by a number of coats of slightly discolored varnish, which are uneven in© 2018 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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sheen/gloss.
Overall the support, ground, and paint layers are stable and in good condition. There is scatteredretouching throughout and a pronounced craquelure pattern appears throughout the entire
picture, particularly in darker passages and in the woman’s sleeve.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. John Twilley performed the scientific analysis of the painting. The primary analyticaltechniques used were cross-sectional microscopy, polarized light microscopy (for dispersed
pigment/ground samples), and scanning electron microscopy (email correspondence withJohn Twilley, 10 July 2017).
2. Karin Groen, “Grounds in Rembrandt’s Workshop and in Paintings by His
Contemporaries,” in Paintings in the Laboratory: Scientific Examination for Art History andConservation, ed. Esther van Duijn (London, 2014), 37.
3. It would be atypical for paintings associated with Rembrandt and his workshop for thisgray layer to be applied locally rather than covering the entire lower ground. Additional
information relating to the possible second ground layer was obtained via email
correspondence with John Twilley on 18 July 2017.
4. Infrared reflectography may reveal the presence of a carbon black–containing preparatory
oil sketch and/or imprimatura.
5. Cross-sectional analysis may help to clarify why the signature appears to be partiallyobscured.

© 2018 The Leiden Collection