Rembrandt’s Motherca. 1628

Studio of Rembrandt van Rijn

oil on panel
35.5 x 29.1 cm
JL-106© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
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How To Cite
DeWitt, Lloyd. "Rembrandt’s Mother." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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The 1679 inventory of the estate of Clement de Jonghe (1624/25–77), an

Comparative Figures

Amsterdam print dealer who had known and sat for Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–69), identifies, for the first time, the sitter in one of the master’s
prints as “Rembrandts moeder” (Rembrandt’s mother).[1] The exact
etching referred to in this inventory is not known, but it was undoubtedly
one of a number of images of an old woman that Rembrandt made in thelate 1620s and early 1630s (fig 1). The identification of this sitter as
Rembrandt’s mother is probably correct given the number of times thatRembrandt depicted her.[2] She also served as a model for other Leiden
artists, including Jan Lievens (1607–74)[3] and apprentices in Rembrandt’sstudio, among them Gerrit Dou (1613–75), Isaac de Jouderville (ca.
1612–48), and the unknown artists who painted Bust of an Old
Woman (RR-122) and this expressive tronie.[4]Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Rembrandt’s Mother, 1628,
etching, 64 x 64 mm, BritishMuseum, London, F,6.122,
1843,0607.219, © Trustees of theBritish Museum

In this painting, Rembrandt’s mother wears a dark headdress that sweeps
across her forehead and frames her face as it falls over her shoulders onto
her dark, fur-trimmed robe. Beneath these austere coverings is a white
blouse with an elaborately embroidered collar. The woman’s aged skin,which glows under the strong light coming from the left, is rendered in a
network of small strokes and splotchy dabs of paint, including ochre
highlights and vivid red accents on her proper right eye and bottom lip.
Angular marks boldly scratched into the wet paint, sometimes with theblunt end of a brush and sometimes with a reed pen, not only indicate folds
and wrinkles in her face, but also the decorative patterns in her white
blouse and fur trim.[5] The expressive brushwork and scratches in thepaint, as well as the strong contrasts of light and dark that divide her faceFig 2. Circle of Rembrandt vanRijn, A Man Seated Reading at aTable in a Lofty Room, ca.
1628–29, oil on oak panel, 55.1 x
46.5 cm, The National Gallery,London, NG3214

along the bridge of her nose, indicate that this panel was not conceived asa portrait but as a tronie, or character study, where the artist has captured
both the inner dignity and the effects of time on the face of this aged
woman.
The artist who painted this tronie looked carefully at Rembrandt’s 1628
etching of his mother’s visage (fig 1), where she similarly gazes directly
out at the viewer and wears the same black headdress. Rembrandt
indicated the many wrinkles covering her face with delicate etched lines,
and expressively modeled the image to capture effects of light and dark.
The artist who made the Leiden Collection painting sought to emulatethese characteristics, but exaggerated them, not only with his broad
application of paint but also in the angular rhythms of the calligraphic

Fig 3. Circle of Rembrandt vanRijn, Travellers Resting (TheRest on the Flight into Egypt?), oil
on paper, adhered to a panel, 38
x 33.7 cm, The Hague,
Mauritshuis, no. 579© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
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hooked strokes of his scratched lines.[6]Ernst van de Wetering has sought to group this tronie with two otherpaintings by an unidentified artist from Rembrandt’s workshop: A Man
Seated Reading at a Table in a Lofty Room , ca. 1628–29 (NationalGallery, London) (fig 2) and Travellers Resting (The Rest on the Flightinto Egypt?), ca. 1629–30 (Mauritshuis, The Hague) (fig 3).[7] He notedthat these three paintings have technical and stylistic similarities, inparticular the way in which the artist scratched into the wet paint to form
outlines, an approach that differs from the way Rembrandt used hisscratching technique to create textural effects.[8] Aside from the use ofFig 4. X-radiograph of JL-106

Rembrandt’s mother as a model and the superficial similarities in painting
techniques, dendrochronological analysis also connects this painting toRembrandt’s studio: the panel support was cut from the same tree as thatfor Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, ca. 1628 (Indianapolis Museum of Art).[9]X-radiographs indicate that this tronie was painted over another image—asoldier with a broad hat and staff (fig 4). The soldier’s form is also visibleat the right of the panel in raking light. Indeed, some of the “dead-coloring”
revealed because of the scratching may be paint from this original image.
This expressive tronie is a fascinating example of a work produced in
Rembrandt’s workshop during his Leiden years, yet it also serves asreminder of how much is still to be learned about the character of thatstudio. We still do not have a firm sense of who was in the workshop in thelate 1620s other than Gerrit Dou, and we do not really know how
Rembrandt taught pupils about his complex painting techniques. Was awork such as this painted from life or modeled after one of the master’s
prints? Did he challenge his students to paint an image with strong effects
of light and dark and to capture an image of age as part of his pedagogicalprocess? Did he authorize works such as this for sale, and, if so, were theysold under his name? Works such as this tronie are compelling to look atand to reflect upon for their emotional qualities, but they also help us
develop a richer understanding of the master who inspired them.

-Lloyd DeWitt© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
Page 5 of 9Endnotes
1. D. de Hoop Scheefr and K. G. Boon, “Nogmaals de inventarislijst van Clement de Jonghe,”
De Kroniek van her Rembrandthuis 4 (1972): 126. Gerbrand Korevaar, “Rembrandt’sMother: Rise and Fall of a Myth,” in Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality , ed. Christiaan
Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Leidenand Zwolle, 2005), 36.
2. Rembrandt’s mother was named Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck (1569–1640).
3. Lievens’s images of “Rembrandt’s mother” include Old Woman Reading a Book , ca.
1625–26 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), and two panels of her face in profile (Rembrandt’sMother, ca. 1613 [Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2005, inv.
no. 48-001], and Old Woman with a Headscarf , ca. 1631 [The Burghley House Collection,Lincolnshire, inv. no. 214]). Lievens also made an etching of her (see Friedrich WilhelmHollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, ca. 1450–1700 , 66vols. [Amsterdam, 1944–], 11: no. 49) that was part of a group called the “Diversetronikens.” Lievens used this etched image as a model for Job’s wife in the large canvasJobon the Dungheap, ca. 1631 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).
4. This painting was attributed to Rembrandt until 1982, when the Rembrandt Research
Project deemed it to be a later imitation. See Stichting Foundation Rembrandt ResearchProject, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol. 1, 1625–1631, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (TheHague, Boston, and London, 1982), no. C42. Subsequently, Ernst van de Wetering correctly
argued that the painting should be placed in Rembrandt’s orbit in Leiden at the end of the1620s. See Ernst van de Wetering, “Delimiting Rembrandt’s Autograph Oeuvre: AnInsoluble Problem?” in The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt , ed. Ernst van de Weteringand Bernhard Schnackenburg (Exh. cat. Kassel, Museumslandschaft Hessen; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Wolfratshausen, 2001), 78–79.
5. The scratched lines with a reed pen occur on her proper right cheek. Rembrandt also used areed pen to make scratches, albeit later in his career. See Mark Tucker, Lloyd DeWitt, andKen Sutherland, “Rembrandt’s Jesus,” in Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus , ed. LloydDeWitt (Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit,Detroit Institute of Arts) (New Haven, 2011), 38.
6. For a related painting of an old woman, traditionally identified as a portrait of Rembrandt’smother, see the entry on RR-122.
7. Ernst van de Wetering in Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar, eds., Rembrandt’sMother: Myth and Reality (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Leiden andZwolle, 2005), 94.
8. Bernhard Schnackenburg, however, has mentioned to the present collector (verbal© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
Page 6 of 9communication) that he attributes the painting to Jan Lievens.
9. See the Technical Summary for this painting.

Provenance
Arthur Sanderson, Edinburgh, by 1897, as by Rembrandt.
[A. Preyer, The Hague, 1908; Sedelmeyer Galleries, Paris, 1911, as by Rembrandt].
Sir George Donaldson, London, as by Rembrandt [Cottier & Co., New York, as byRembrandt].
[A. Preyer, The Hague, as by Rembrandt].
Von Bohlen und Halbach Collection, Essen, Germany, by 1916 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd.,London, 2007].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, “Rembrandt: Schilderijen bijeengebracht ter gelegenheid
van de inhuldiging van Hare Majesteit Koningin Wilhelmina,” 8 September–31 October
1898, no. 16, as by Rembrandt [lent by Arthur Sanderson].
Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe,“Der junge Rembrandt: Rätsel um seine Anfänge/The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt,” 3
November 2001–27 January 2002; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 20
February–26 May 2002, no. 64, as by circle of Rembrandt [lent by the Von Bohlen undHalbach Collection].
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, “Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality,” 16
December 2005–19 March 2006, no. 8, as by circle of Rembrandt [lent by the Von Bohlen
und Halbach Collection].
Munich, Haus der Kunst München, “Tronies: Marlene Dumas und die Alten Meister/Tronies:Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters,” 29 October 2010–6 February 2011, no. 34, asunknown pupil of Rembrandt [lent by the present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August 2015–August
2016 [lent by the present owner].

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
Page 7 of 9References
Bode, Wilhelm, and Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Rembrandt: Beschreibendes Verzeichnissseiner Gemälde mit den heliographischen Nachbildungen; Geschichte seines Lebens undseiner Kunst. 8 vols. Paris, 1897, 1:73–74, no. 21, as by Rembrandt.
Rembrandt: Schilderijen bijeengebracht ter gelegenheid van de inhuldiging van Hare
Majesteit Koningin Wilhelmina/Rembrandt: Collection des oeuvres du maître réunies àl’occasion de l’inauguration de S. M. la Reine Wilhelmine, au musée de la ville àAmsterdam. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1898, no. 16, as byRembrandt.
Moes, Ernst Wilhelm. Iconographia Batava: Beredeneerde lijst van geschilderde en
gebeeldhouwde portretten van Noord-Nederlanders in vorige eeuwen . 2 vols. Amsterdam,
1905, 2:666, no. 9404, 6, as by Rembrandt.
Veth, Jan. “Portret van Rembrandt’s moeder.” Onze Kunst 14 (1908): 194–98, as byRembrandt.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R., and Rosenberg, Adolf. Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart
and Berlin, 1908, 36, 550, as by Rembrandt.
Sedelmeyer, Charles. Illustrated Catalogue of the Eleventh Series of 100 Paintings by Old
Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools, Being a Portion of theSedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1911, 36, no. 31, as by Rembrandt.
Coppier, André-Charles. “A propos des ‘Disciples d’Emmaüs.’” Les Arts 148 (April 1914):26, as by Lievens.
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 . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke
der hervorragendsten Höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 6:325, no. 685, as by Rembrandt.
Bauch, Kurt. Die Kunst des jungen Rembrandt . Heidelberg, 1933, 57–59, fig. 46, 182, as byRembrandt.
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: Schilderijen. Utrecht, 1935, 4, no. 64, as by Rembrandt.
Bauch, Kurt. Der frühe Rembrandt und sein Zeit: Studien zur geschichtlichen Bedeutungseines Frühstils. Berlin, 1960, 170, as by Rembrandt.
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 249, as by Rembrandt.
Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt: Paintings. Amsterdam, 1968, 30, 196–97, 490, no. 35, as byRembrandt.
Bredius, Abraham, and Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings .
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rembrandt’s Mother
Page 8 of 9London, 1969, 62, 552, no. 64, as by Rembrandt.
Lecaldano, Paolo, and Martin, Gregory. The Complete Paintings of Rembrandt . New York,1969, no. 40, pl. vi, as by Rembrandt.
Braun, Karel. Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Rembrandt en een beknopt overzicht
van zijn voornaamste werk als etser en tekenaar. Rotterdam, 1979, 22, 88, 89, no. 40, asby Rembrandt.
Bruyn, Joshua, Haak, Bob, Levie, Simon H., Van Thiel, Pieter J. J. and Van de Wetering,Ernst, eds. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings . 5 vols. The Hague, Boston, London, 1982–,
1:667-670, no. C42, as by an imitator of Rembrandt; 4:96, 649, 653, as by Rembrandt
workshop.
Van den Boogert, Bob. “Bust of an Old Woman (Rembrandt’s Mother)?” InThe Mystery ofthe Young Rembrandt. Edited by Ernst van de Wetering and Bernhard Schnackenburg. Exh.
cat.

Kassel,Staatliche

MuseenKassel,Gemäldegalerie

Alte

Meister,SchlossWilhelmshöhe; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. Wolfratshausen, 2001, 316–19,no. 64, as by circle of Rembrandt.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. “Delimiting Rembrandt’s Autograph Oeuvre: An Insoluble
Problem?” In The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt. Edited by Ernst van de Wetering andBernhard Schnackenburg. Exh. cat. Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie AlteMeister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. Wolfratshausen,
2001, 78–79, fig. 31, as by circle of Rembrandt.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. “Old Woman in a Headscarf, ca. 1628.” InRembrandt’s Mother:
Myth and Reality. Edited by Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrand Korevaar. Exh. cat. Leiden,Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden and Zwolle, 2005, 94–96, no. 8, as by circle ofRembrandt.
Vogelaar, Christiaan. “Rembrandt in Leiden: His Town, Workshop and Models.” In
Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality. Edited by Christiaan Vogelaar and GerbrandKorevaar. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Leiden and Zwolle, 2005, 16, asby circle of Rembrandt.
Krempel, León. “Sapphos Blick über die Schulter/Sappho’s Backward Glance.” InTronies:Marlene Dumas und die Alten Meister/Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old
Masters. Edited by Chris Dercon. Exh. cat. Munich, Haus der Kunst München. Düsseldorf,
2010, 17–18, no. 34, as unknown pupil of Rembrandt.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular Baltic oak, has an earliest use dateof 1598 and is derived from the same tree as Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in the Indianapolis© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Rembrandt’s Mother
Page 9 of 9Museum of Art. The youngest heartwood rings from both works support a date from 1581.[1]Planed through and filled worm tunnels indicate the panel reverse has been thinned. A wedgeshaped wood shim was applied to the upper panel edge reverse to compensate for the taper ofthe panel’s only bevel before the panel was cradled. No wax seals, import stamps, stencils or
panel maker’s marks are visible along the cradle or panel reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. A dark gray layer below the light graybackground remains visible and forms a narrow border across the upper edge and an evennarrower border along the right edge. The paint has been applied with visible brushwork throughthe background and in a paste consistency through the figure’s face. Areas of detail have beenscratched into wet paint with the back of a brush and allow the underlayers to show through theface, white chemise, and fur collar and continue to the right of the figure along the underside ofthe hood.
The X-radiograph reveals either an earlier composition of a figure with shoulder-length hair
wearing a cap with a diagonally angled upper edge or significant changes to the female figure
wearing a dark hood in the final composition. In raking light, unmistakable 1 cm-wide brushworkforms a diagonal U through the plain gray background to the right of the female figure and twowide looping swirls above the angled cap. It is unclear how this brushwork relates to the earlier orfinal composition. Further investigation is required.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2007 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The identification of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s 2004 German dendrochronology
report. Indianapolis Museum of Art, inv. no. 10063, RRP IV Corr I A 22/ Br 3.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection