  About the Artwork
  
  
  This vigorously painted study of a woman’s head offered Rembrandt van Rijn the opportunity to experiment with the representation of textures. The relatively smooth delineation of the figure’s skin stands out against the dynamic, broken brushwork of the clothing. Similarly, the handkerchief that she holds to her right eye is translucent in comparison with the heavy plaid cloth falling from her left shoulder. Rembrandt made this work as an expressive study; the head of the weeping woman, with tear-filled eyes and softly closed mouth, appears again in the figure of the kneeling adulteress in Rembrandt’s Woman Taken in Adultery (1644), now in the National Gallery, London. This picture offers a glimpse at the artist’s creative process as he worked up ideas for the ambitious multifigure scene.
  
  
  Title
  A Woman Weeping
  
  
  Artwork Date
  mid- to late 1640s
  
  Artist
  Circle of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1606-1669
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Dutch
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on oak panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 8 3/8 × 6 5/8 inches (21.3 × 16.8 cm)
  Framed: 11 1/8 × 9 3/8 × 1 1/4 inches (28.3 × 23.8 × 3.2 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  56.183
  
  
  Copyright
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