3-102-278 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Rembrandt's Mother', 1639, (1967). Alternative title: The Prophetess Anna. Neeltje Willemsdochter van Zuydhoeck (1568-1640), a baker's daughter, married the miller Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn in 1589. Rembrandt was the sixth of their seven children. Here her wrinkled face and red-rimmed eyes contrast with the sparkling jewellery on her breast. Her posture, with both hands leaning on a stick, helps us to understand why many regard this work as a symbol of old age rather than as only a portrait of a specific woman, even though this woman is Rembrandt's mother whom he painted often. This painting, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, is probably a copy by Govaert Flinck of a Rembrandt painting that has been lost. From "Rembrandt" by Ludwig Münz and Bob Haak, [Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1967]