# Seated Female Nude

**Rembrandt van Rijn** (Dutch, 1606–1669)  
1660/62  
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, with subtractive highlights (scraping) and touches of opaque white watercolor corrections, on ivory laid paper, laid down on cream laid card  
Primary/secondary supports: 21.2 × 17.5 cm (8 3/8 × 6 15/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1953.38. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/90536).

## About this work

A nude woman sits on a low stool, her head bowed, drawn with a few rapid pen lines and broad sweeps of brown wash. Rembrandt drew from the model with his pupils in the studio, and he rejected the idealised bodies of classical art in favour of real, unglamorous flesh, a choice that troubled some later critics. Scraped highlights and touches of white correction show him reworking the sheet as he went, capturing the weight of the body and the fall of light with startling economy.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Rembrandt van Rijn painted this in 1660/62, aged about 54. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Brown-tone drawing of a nude woman seated on a small stool, looking downward.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
- **Pen and ink.** Drawn with a quill or reed pen, often with wash added by brush to model light and shadow.
- **Laid paper.** Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.

### [Rembrandt van Rijn](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/rembrandt-van-rijn)

Dutch, 1606–1669; born in Leiden; died in Amsterdam

Rembrandt trained in Leiden and Amsterdam, settled in Amsterdam in the early 1630s and became the city’s most sought-after portraitist. His later work grows rougher and more searching, with thick paint, deep shadow and faces that seem lost in thought, as in Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, painted for a Sicilian collector. He was also the leading etcher of his age, reworking plates through many states and making the medium as expressive as painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Drawing and Watercolor
- Culture: Holland
- The artist was about 54
- Real size: about 8½ × 6½ in (21 × 17 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 17th century
- Subjects: interiors, nudes, women
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/250.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/250/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/seated-female-nude-aic-90536).