Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq, 1633

About the Work

With its oval format, spartan staging and reduced palette, this painting represents a portrait type Rembrandt employed repeatedly for the members of the Amsterdam patriciate during his early phase in that city. The likeness is impressive by virtue of the immediacy with which he rendered the well-nourished young lady’s features. The open brushwork gives her a lifelike quality. The representation of various precious textiles one above the other – for example the delicate fabric of the ruff and the lace border of the bonnet – testifies to the artist’s painterly sophistication.