Studies of the Mourning Magdalen and the Virgin
In the 1630s Rembrandt painted a series on the suffering of Christ, the Passion. Commissioned by Prince Frederick Henry, the project was discussed via the Prince’s secretary, Constantijn Huygens. Here Rembrandt tried out various poses for the figures of Mary Magdalene (in pen) and the Virgin (in red chalk) in The Entombment. As he later wrote to Huygens, he was seeking the ‘most natural emotions’ of the figures.