Artwork
Old Woman Plucking a Fowl
Old Woman Plucking a Fowl is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Follower of Rembrandt van Rijn. It dates from 1652 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The subject of Old Woman Plucking a Fowl centers on a solitary elderly woman engaged in the mundane task of plucking a bird, a scene emblematic of 17th-century Dutch genre painting. The composition emphasizes the woman’s concentration and the tactile engagement with the fowl, underscoring themes of labor, sustenance, and the passage of time. The depiction aligns with contemporary moralizing traditions, where such scenes often carried allegorical weight, contrasting industriousness with idleness or evoking the inevitability of aging and mortality.
The work’s inclusion in collections from Amsterdam to Paris and its eventual acquisition by the National Gallery of Art suggests its enduring appeal as a representation of quotidian life, stripped of idealization.
Technique & Style
The composition favors close-up naturalism, with the woman’s hands, the fowl’s feathers, and the tabletop rendered with careful attention to texture and weight.
The work is executed in oil on canvas, a pairing typical of Dutch genre painting of the mid-seventeenth century. Handling is characterized by a restrained impasto, with the paint laid thinly over the weave to model the figures and still-life elements through subtle tonal variation rather than heavy brushwork. The composition favors close-up naturalism, with the woman’s hands, the fowl’s feathers, and the tabletop rendered with careful attention to texture and weight.
Warm earth tones, ochres, umbers, and deep blacks, dominate, punctuated by cooler highlights on the bird’s plumage and the woman’s linen. Stylistic traits include a subdued palette and a quiet, almost monochromatic harmony, aligning with Rembrandt’s late manner, though the attribution remains contested.
History & Provenance
Dated to 1653, this oil on canvas was possibly commissioned by or belonged to Willem Six of Amsterdam by 1662, potentially appearing in his estate sale of 1734. The work subsequently entered the collection of Francis Charteris, 7th Earl of Wemyss, at Gosford House, before passing to Ralph Willett in Dorset. Willett bequeathed the painting to his cousin John Willett Adye, whose estate offered it in 1813.
Following transactions involving Anthony Stewart and Andrew Geddes in London during the early nineteenth century, the piece remained within the Geddes family until at least 1867. Later owners included Baron de Beurnonville in Paris and the dealer F. Kleinberger & Co. After passing through the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Timme in Cold Spring, New York, the artwork was gifted to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1956.
Old Woman Plucking a Fowl is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1956 as a gift from Dr. and Mrs. Walter Timme of Cold Spring, New York. The painting carries a long chain of ownership beginning with a possible early provenance through Willem Six in Amsterdam and passing through figures such as Francis Charteris, 7th earl of Wemyss, at Gosford House, and Ralph Willett at Great Canford, Dorset. It was later owned by Andrew Geddes and subsequently passed through multiple auction sales in London and Paris during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the 1884 Beurnonville sale and the 1912 Madame Levaigneur estate sale at the Hôtel Drouot, before being handled by Kleinberger and reaching the Timmes. The work has no documented exhibition history beyond its recorded provenance transactions.
Overview
This oil on canvas painting, titled Old Woman Plucking a Fowl, depicts a solitary elderly woman engaged in the domestic task of preparing poultry. The artwork presents a quiet scene, focusing on the figure's hands and the bird she is processing. It is characterized by a direct and unembellished portrayal of everyday life, inviting viewers to observe a common, yet often overlooked, activity.
Artist & collection
Artist
Follower of Rembrandt van Rijn
Follower of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) was a Dutch artist.
