The Artist's Mother in a Cloth Headdress, looking down: Head only

This small print is the last of a group of etchings which Rembrandt made between 1628 and 1632 of an elderly woman who has been identified as his mother, Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbroeck (circa 1568-1640) (see lot 5). In this etching Rembrandt focused exclusively on the elderly woman’s characterful face, framed by a head covering, her chin almost resting on the lower platemark. In the first state - of which only one impression is known - the face is placed centrally on a larger sheet of paper without a visible platemark. This suggests that the portrait was originally etched on a plate even larger than the sheet, and that it may have been conceived as a bust or half-length figure. In the second state Rembrandt cut the plate down to only the head, adding the shoulders, signature and date, and strengthening the shadows in places. Why he abandoned the larger format is unclear, but the result is a very intimate and tender study of extreme old age.