The Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters Right

The Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters Right

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The woman in this print appears in several early etchings by Rembrandt. She has been identified since the late seventeenth century as Rembrandt's mother Neeltgen Willemsdr. van Zuytbroeck (ca. 1568–1640). In such early prints, when Rembrandt was still exploring the medium of etching, he was nonetheless able to beautifully capture the woman's age and expression with limited linework.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters RightThe Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters RightThe Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters RightThe Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters RightThe Artist's Mother: Head and Bust, Three-Quarters Right

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.