Signed in the plate with the artist's monogram lower left RHL.f.

A strong, dark and cleanly printed 17th century / lifetime impression of Bartsch's second state of three, Usticke's first state of three, of this rare and desirable etching, printed after the addition of the cross hatching below and to the left of the chair, and the addition of shading to the previously blank area below the signature at the left edge, but before the plate was cut down to an oval, showing no wear even in the darkest areas of shading.

Trimmed down to the platemark on all four sides, a single thin spot in the sheet verso, otherwise in excellent condition. Collection in which impression of this state of this etching can be found: Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmseum, Amsterdam; Kupferstichkabinett der Staalichen Museen, Berlin-Dahlem; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; StŠdelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-on-Main; Teylers Stichting, Haarlem; Ermitage Museum, Leningrad; The British Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Bibliothque Nationale, Paris; Duthuit Collection, Petit Palais, Paris; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna. Rembrandt's mother, Neeltgen Willemsdochter Zuytbrouch, daughter of a baker, bore nine children, of which Rembrandt was the eighth. Rembrandt seems to have recorded her features in a number of etchings, this one included. However, there is no documentary evidence that the old lady in these works is indeed Rembrandt's mother. It was during the 1679 inventory of Clement de Jonghe's estate that these images were assumed to be depictions of the artist's mother.

Bartsch 343 ii/ii; Hind 52; Biorklund-Barnard 31-8; Usticke 343 ii/iii

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