Elderly Woman with a Pearl Necklace

1650s

Cornelis Bisschop

Associated Names
Cornelis Bisschop

Artist, Dutch, 1630 - 1674

Artwork overview

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Sarah Churchill, née Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough [1660–1744]; by inheritance to her grandson, John Spencer [1708–1746], Wimbledon Manor;[1] by inheritance to his son, John Spencer [1734–1783], 1st Earl Spencer, Wimbledon Manor and Althorp;[2] by descent in the family; (their sale Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, no. 166); purchased by Miriam [1937-2024] and Eliezer H. Benbassat [1934-2022], Washington, DC; The Miriam Benbassat Trust; gift 2025 to NGA.
[1] Horace Walpole saw the painting at Wimbledon Manor in 1751, describing it as “Rembrandt’s Mother, three quarters, fine.” (See Paget Toynbee, “Horace Walpole’s Journals of Visits to Country Seats, &c.” The Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 16, 1927: 14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41830706. See also E.K. Waterhouse, “A Rembrandt Problem Solves Itself,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 88, no. 520 (1946): 175. http://www.jstor.org/stable/869285; both accessed 4 Aug. 2025.)
The duchess’s will, leaving her estate of Wimbledon as well as other properties to her grandson, is quoted in Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Aedes Althorpianae: An Account of the Mantion, Books, and Pictures, at Althorp, the Residence of George John Earl Spencer, K.G., 1822: lvii, †. See also p. 22 confirming the painting was with Churchill.
[2] Dibdin reproduced the painting, noting it was in the library at Althorp in 1822. See Dibdin, pp. 21 (engraving opposite) and 22, as well as engraving of the library showing its placement above the fireplace, opposite p. 20.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1857

  • Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, Manchester, England, 1857, no. 49.

1872

  • Exhibition of Art, Industries and Manufactures and Loan Museum of Works of Art, Dublin, 1872, no. 128.

1895

  • Loan Collection of PIctures, Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 1895, no. 134, as Rembrandt, Portrait of Rembrandt's Mother.

1904

  • Dutch Exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1904, no. 171, as Rembrandt.

1929

  • Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1929, no. 263, as attributed to Nicolaes de Maes.

1952

  • Dutch Pictures, 1450-1750, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1952, no. 228.

2005

  • Rembrandt's Mother, Myth and Reality, 2005, no. 27.

Bibliography

1822

  • Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. Aedes Althorpianae; or, An Account of the Mansion, Books, and Pictures, at Althorp, The Residence of George John, Earl Spencer, K.G. ... 2 vols. London, 1822: 1:21-22, engraved, opp. 21, as Rembrandt, Rembrandt's Mother.

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 7(1836):172-173, no. 542, as Rembrandt, Rembrandt's Mother..

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 3:459, as Rembrandt, "Rembrandt's mother..."

1897

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. 8 vols. Translated by Florence Simmonds. Paris, 1897-1906: 7: 248, n. a, as by Backer(?).

1906

  • Pierre-Marcel, René. "Collection du Comte Spencer." Les arts 60 (December 1906): repro., n.p. [3]; 10, as Rembrandt, Portrait de la mere de l'artiste

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 6(1916):471,n. 102, as by Ferdinand Bol.

1927

  • Toynbee, Page. "Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats, &c." _The Volume of the Walpole Society 16 (1927): 14, as _Rembrandt's Mother."

1950

  • Brière Misme, Clotilde. “Un petit maître hollandaise: Cornelis Bisschop (1630–1674), IV.” Oud Holland 65 (1950): 181-183, fig. 4, 192.

1966

  • Katalog der alten Meister der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Hamburg, 1966: 32.

1974

  • Garlick, Kenneth. "A Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp." Walpole Society 45 (1974-1976): 7, no. 48, pl. 32.

1983

  • Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in sechs Bänden. 6 vols. Landau, 1983:3: 1962, 1966, no. 86, 1995,, repro.

2000

  • Rembrandt, oder nicht?, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Die Gemälde, Hamburg, 2000: 66, no.34, repro.

Inscriptions

C. Bissch[...] 165[?]

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