The Artist's Mother: Head Only, Full Face

Rembrandt van Rijn

1628

Etching

Minneapolis Institute of Art

An etching depicts the head of an elderly woman wearing a head covering. Her face is rendered with detailed lines, showing wrinkles and a somber expression. Rembrandt was living at home in Leiden, Holland, when he sat down to etch in front of an easily accessible model, his 60-year-old mother. Old, lined faces would be a lifelong motif for him, but it’s hard to imagine one etched with more delicacy or penetration. The air of introspection may owe to the Dutch tradition of picturing aged people as pious and pondering salvation. When plans to extend the torso didn’t work out, Rembrandt, then age 22, did the unthinkable and severed the plate under his mother’s chin. He was nonetheless proud of the print, dating and signing it as a finished work. His mother is the only verifiable family mem