Nude Woman Lying on a Pillow c. 1661 - 1662

This is Rembrandt van Rijn’s sketch “Nude Woman Lying on a Pillow,” made with pen and brown ink in the Dutch Republic. Rembrandt was a master of light and shadow, and here we see him exploring the intimate space of the bedroom. The Dutch Golden Age was a time of economic prosperity, but also of strict social codes, and the public role of art at the time was to promote moral values. How might this image subvert those values? The drawing challenges these norms by presenting a nude woman in a private, domestic setting. This was a radical departure from idealized nudes of antiquity, and could be interpreted as a comment on the hypocrisies of Dutch society. To understand this drawing fully, we would need to research the social and cultural history of the Dutch Golden Age, looking at sources such as period literature and social commentaries. This would help us appreciate the drawing's challenge to the social and institutional norms of the time.