The woman is Elsje Christiaens, a 18-year-old Danish girl. She was condemned to death for murdering her landlady, the hatchet was the weapon used for the attack. It was the first execution of a woman in Amsterdam in 21 years. Her body was put for display on the Volewijk gallows field, north of Amsterdam.
Rembrandt
A Woman Hanging on a Gibbet
1664172 x 90 mm
Pen and brown ink with brown wash
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
H.O. Havermeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs H.O. Havermeyer
Related works
Rembrandt
A Woman Hanging on a Gibbet
1664
A Woman Hanging on a Gibbet
1664
Provenance
Sir Thomas Lawrence (Bristol 1769–1830 London)
William Esdaile (British, 1758–1837 London)
Jacob de Vos (Amsterdam 1735–1833 Amsterdam)
A Malefactor on a gibet said to have come from the collection of Jacob de Vos of Amsterdam. Some Rembrandt drawings belonging to him were sold in Amsterdam in 1883, but this one is not listed
Sir Francis Seymour Haden (London 1818–1910 Bramdean, Hampshire)
his sale, Sotheby's, London, 15-19 June 1891, nr. 577, to Durand-Ruel
with Durand-Ruel
H.O. Havemeyer
Donor Louisine W. Havemeyer
Other works by Rembrandt
Wide River Landscape
The healing of the mother-in-law of St Peter
Christ Healing a Leper
c. 1650-55
c. 1650-55
Sketch after Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
1639
1639
Christ in the House of Mary and Martha
1632-33
1632-33