This small panel features the woman known as “Rembrandt’s mother”, a model who appears in numerous paintings, drawings and prints by Rembrandt van Rijn and those in his circle. The specificity of the depiction of old age–the wrinkles in the forehead and around the eyes, the deft use of violet to articulate veins visible through the transparent skin, the slackness in the cheeks to indicate a toothless mouth–points to Rembrandt’s use of a live model. Yet this painting is just one of fourteen known versions, of which no original by Rembrandt has been traced. The high number of copies suggests that the master used his painting as a studio exercise for his students in Leiden and perhaps Amsterdam.