The copperplate was in the sale by Pieter de Haan (1767, lot 48, together with nr B170/NHD 49) and was sold via Fouquet to Claude-Henri Watelet. It then became part of the set of plates subsequently owned and used for printing Recueils by Pierre-François Basan, Henri-Louis Basan (his nr 1423), Auguste Jean (ca 1809), Veuve Jean, Auguste and Michel Bernard (1846), Alvin-Beaumont (1906) and Robert Lee Humber (1937). It was sold at the Artemis sale in London (1993) and is now in a private collection in the Netherlands.

This etching is part of the series of beggars Rembrandt etched around 1630. It is generally assumed that he was inspired by a series of beggars made by Callot in 1622. He copied the long parallel lines Callot used to indicate shadows. In turn, Rembrandt’s work has inspired many others, like Quast, Savery, van Vliet, van Schendel and Bloemaert, to produce series of beggars and other ‘street folk’.

In the catalogue of the De Burgy sale of 1755 this print was referred to as “Een oude bedelares met een kruikje, van agteren” (An Old Beggar Woman with a jug, from behind).

This etching is generally considered to be a pendant of “Beggar with crippled hands leaning on a stick” (B 166).
The hat is similar to hats seen in other prints.

There is a copy in the same direction by Ignace Joseph De Claussin (162 x 163, later cut to 162 x 85 mm).

The plate was made by a pupil according to Seidlitz and Campbell Dodgson.
The plate is not by Rembrandt according to Middleton, Coppier and Singer.

NH, as all authors, lists two states. Both states are by Rembrandt, but there are many later impressions of the final state. Nowell-Usticke lists one trial proof and one state. There are later impressions of his 1st state by P.Basan, Basan, Jean, Bernard and Beaumont.
In the 1st state (NH, WB, R479/NU trial proof A) the plate is still untrimmed.
In the 2nd state (NH, WB, R480/NU 1st state) the plate is reduced and a horizontal line is added just above the bottom edge. Early impressions (NU) have inky edges, burr on the horizontal line and a scratch across the gourd. In intermediate impressions (NU, Basan) the scratch becomes weak and there is a small black spot below the bottom line at right, which becomes weak in later impressions.

Of the 1st state only one impression is known, in the Rijksmuseum.
Nowell-Usticke considers the impressions in the Recueil de Basan to be quite strong.

H 80, BB 30-16, G 161, M 75, Mz 107, RA 479-480, Cl 165, W 165, Bl 132, Du 164, CD 287.
Broos 1985, p. 29; Hinterding 2008, p. 315-316;

NH/WB: 2nd and final state.
A later impression, probably by Basan, since the black spot in the lower margin is visible.
Sheet 115 x 60 mm, wide margins of ca 6 mm all around (+46%).
No watermark, horizontal chain lines at approx. 25 mm.

Probably in a Swiss private collection, based on a sticker at the backside of the frame.