Formative Figures: Elderly Women in The Art of Rembrandt and His Leiden Circle

Abstract

This dissertation examines the roles of personal connections as well as social and cultural influences in the paintings, etchings, and drawings of elderly women that Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) and his circle made in Leiden. Together, as part of the creative exchange they developed during the 1620s and early 1630s, Rembrandt and his early comrade Jan Lievens (1607–1674) created many images of aged women that are exceptional in their compassionate character. Rembrandt also shared his fascination with these subjects with his first student, Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), whose later genre scenes that feature older women, from the 1650s and 1660s, are similarly humane. Through an examination of their portrayals of these subjects in their tronies, history paintings, and scenes based on everyday life, and the interactions they had in Leiden, this dissertation seeks to provide a greater understanding of the body of influences that shaped these artists’ distinctly sympathetic approach to elderly women in their art.