The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam acquired this painting by Rembrandt van Rijn (dated 1631) in 1928. The earliest named entry in the painting’s provenance dates from the eighteenth century and simply refers to its subject as ‘an old woman reading a book’.

From the mid-nineteenth century, the subject came to be identified as ‘the Prophetess Anna’ and Rembrandt’s mother was suggested as the model. The current label, Old Woman Reading, probably the Prophetess Anna, is rather more tentative. Nevertheless, we can identify Rembrandt’s mother’s features with confidence because of her multiple appearances in other works by the artist—both paintings and prints—including further examples in which the subject is identified as Anna.

The painting is dominated by the of the woman, who is wrapped in a voluminous russet fur cloak, and wears an elaborate bonnet with long gold braiding, and by the very large, well-thumbed tome she holds on her lap. She is shown deeply absorbed in reading, concentrating her attention on a particular passage (illegible to the viewer). What she has found there seems to have inspired her: her lips are parted as if smiling.

If this is indeed intended to be a representation of Anna, we could suppose that she is searching the Scriptures for some hopeful messianic prophecies, giving praise to God, and rejoicing at the promise of the advent of a Redeemer. Her very old and lined hand, so beautifully rendered, guides her reading, but also caresses the page in front of her with expectation of and tenderness towards the child to come. It is actually this open book, with its content, that forms the real focus of the scene, and upon which the dramatic light in the picture falls.

Rembrandt’s Anna doesn’t quite fit the description Luke gives us of a widow who fasted and prayed day and night in the Temple: she seems too comfortably worldly, well-fed, and well-dressed—and we may even question whether the ‘real’ Anna would have been literate. But in the context of this artwork, her deep engagement with the book and what she reads about the redemption of Jerusalem, is what really matters.