This vigorously painted study of a woman’s head offered Rembrandt van Rijn the opportunity to experiment with the representation of textures. The relatively smooth delineation of the figure’s skin stands out against the dynamic, broken brushwork of the clothing. Similarly, the handkerchief that she holds to her right eye is translucent in comparison with the heavy plaid cloth falling from her left shoulder. Rembrandt made this work as an expressive study; the head of the weeping woman, with tear-filled eyes and softly closed mouth, appears again in the figure of the kneeling adulteress in Rembrandt’s Woman Taken in Adultery (1644)