Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch, 1606 - 1669
Old Woman Seated, early 1650s
Oil on Canvas, 32 1/4 x 28 3/8 inches
Inscribed at right: Rembrandt f. 16[5]...
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Old Woman Seated, painted in the early 1650s when Rembrandt was one of the most important and respected artists in Amsterdam, is on permanent exhibit in the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

The painting depicts an elderly woman seated in a dignified pose, her eyes large and dominating, her hands folded gently in her lap.  The work is characteristic of the pensive character of Rembrandt's art of this period, and most observers will detect a suggestion of melancholy and even frailty in the figure's gentle demeanor.  The identity of the woman has long been lost, and scholars question whether the painting was intended as a portrait in the usual sense of the term.  Throughout his career Rembrandt enjoyed fashioning different identities for his subjects, and he often clothed his sitters in luxurious, old-fashioned costume.  Though paintings such as Old Woman Seated possess the qualities of conventional portraits by means of pose, dress, and attributes, they are not the naturalistic records of likeness and social status of the sort Rembrandt normally painted on commission.

As early as the 1620s Rembrandt began to experiment with a new type of painting known as the tronie, or character study.  His models (who might be friends, relatives, or even the painter himself) were dressed in exotic garments, with a turban or an ornamental cap and possibly a gold necklace.  In inventories these paintings, a compromise between portraits and history pieces, were given titles such as "A handsome young Turkish prince" or "Head of a woman wearing an Oriental headdress."  With these works, which appear to combine elements of allegory, portraiture, and history painting, Rembrandt began a practice he would continue throughout his career.

Rembrandt's use of imaginary guises and costumes for portrait subjects is well known.  One contemporary reported that the artist often went to public sales where he acquired old-fashioned clothes that struck him as "bizarre and picturesque," and which he hung on the walls of his studio.  An inventory of his possessions confirms that he owned exotic apparel and armor.  Old Woman Seated has in the past been called "Portrait of an Old Woman in sumptuous Dress."

In the early 1650s Rembrandt painted many portraits and single figures of old men and women in half-length.  In the words of a contemporary, "In the depiction of old people, particularly their skin and hair, Rembrandt showed great diligence, patience and practice, so that he came very close to these humble lives."  Some of these works fall firmly within the tradition of the so-called portrait historie', a fashionable form of portraiture in which the sitter plays a role in a historical or allegorical scene.  By portraying his subject as a saint, a participant in a biblical episode, or mythological or historical figure, Rembrandt gained greater latitude in exercising his imagination.

The Pushkin painting reflects this practice of representing sitters in anachronistic or theatrical dress; in the 18th century the painting was thought to represent the artist's wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh (1612 - 1642).  Some scholars have described the woman's costume as Burgundian-style dress; others have identified her headdress as a Hebrew prayer shawl used to cover the head during certain Jewish prayers or rituals.  According to this interpretation, the figure could represent a biblical figure such as the Old Testament prophetesses Rembrandt depicted with head coverings in his early work.

Rembrandt executed his later portraits with a broad brush stroke and remarkably little attention to detail, often creating the clothing and hands very broadly and keeping the background vague and dark.  His lifelong devotion to describing the effects of light and shade deepened during the 1650s to the extent that works such as Old Woman Seated appear at first glimpse largely monochromatic.  The powerfully pained faces and accents such as hands receive the light and are molded by the surrounding darkness, which veils and softens all other details.

The artist has not, however, allowed the diminished light to extinguish entirely his customarily rich coloristic effects.  The subtle warm browns and reds that enhance the general atmosphere of harmony and calm are in fact much more vivid than they first appear, and passages such as the bodice and cuffs of the dark silk dress shimmer with a subtle interplay of hues.  Of startling beauty are the transparent folds of the white fabric and dark red shawl that frame the face.  There is throughout a hint of refined luxury suggested by Rembrandt's use of magnificent costume, and several observers have noted the extravagant touch provided by her sapphire ring -- a little blue spark amidst the prevailing warm tones.

Rembrandt's rich and masterly handling is typical of his manner of painting in the early 1650s.  His technique is varied -- bold and sweeping in certain passages, precise and meticulous in others.  X-ray photographs reveal that Old Woman Seated is painted relatively thinly over a light ochre priming layer.  The face is painted with delicate layers of glaze, applied one over the other, and striking, high impasto (thickly applied opaque paint) is confined to the white blouse and the ring; the sapphire set in gold was first painted in white and then coated with a transparent blue dab.

The original canvas of the Pushkin painting was almost square in format, and Rembrandt placed the figure symmetrically within its confines, the empty space to the right of the figure being approximately equal to that of the left.  The loss of the last, and partially next to the last, numeral of the date indicates that  1 1/2-inch strip of canvas was cut from the right-hand border, disturbing the painter's intended compositional balance.

...from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) where the painting was exhibited (February - August 2001) in the Audrey Beck Jones Building as part of an exchange of works with the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow...