Description: Graphite, point of brush in brown, greyish brown wash, on brown prepared paper, some very fine pen lines at the woman’s temple and forehead, 178 x 126 mm. Ruled framing lines in brown ink. A water stain in the centre, partly smeared, has left a lighter patch with circular drying marks. Watermark: Crown (fragment). Chain lines: 27 mm. Numbered in the lower right corner, in pen and brown ink, 1876 (Sparre; changed from no. 1875). Mark of the Royal Collection (Lugt 1638). Inscribed on the verso, in pen and brown ink, Rhimbrand (Mariette?).

The execution of this drawing is complex. It seems to have been started as a sketch in graphite, defining the head and the upper part of the body, and continued with the brush in light brown tones. Finally, darker accents have been added with the brush, but most likely as part of the original drawing and not later retouches. Some pen hatching on the head could have been added afterwards. A light wash in the background, especially on the upper part of the sheet, gives an impression of space.

The drawing was, very early on, considered not to belong to Rembrandt’s oeuvre, and for a long time an attribution to Nicolaes Maes was accepted. Sumowski, while acknowledging affinities with Maes, also finds differences, which would point rather to a Rembrandt pupil influenced by Maes. He attributes the sheet to Abraham van Dijck on the basis of a drawing in Bremen.  There, too, the very fine parallel hatching seen on the temple is present. [Magnusson, Dutch Drawings no. 131]

Sittande kvinna med huvudet i handen