Portrait of a Woman (1635 or earlier): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Woman (1635 or earlier) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669); Studio.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

At the age of 25, Rembrandt moved from his hometown of Leiden to the bustling city of Amsterdam. Within a few years he had become one of the city’s most successful portrait painters, creating remarkably vivid likenesses that seemed to express the personality and soul of the sitter. Here, Rembrandt used smooth, fluid brushstrokes to recreate the soft texture of the woman’s skin. In contrast, thicker, more textured strokes draw attention to the lavish display of her lace collar and gold jewelry—details sure to please a wealthy client. The extraordinary demand at that time for a portrait by Rembrandt meant that in many cases (including, probably, this painting) he called upon assistants to help complete the work.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Woman
• Date: 1635 or earlier
• Creator attribution: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669); Studio
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 97.8 x 83.8 x 6.4 cm (38 1/2 x 33 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 77.5 x 64.8 cm (30 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1944.90

A detail from the museum

This painting is probably a pendant to a portrait of a man that is now at the Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art in Japan. Both were cut down from their original rectangular shape.

Collection credit

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Parthey, G. Deutscher Bildersaal: Verzeichniss der in Deutschland vorhandenen Oelbilder verstorbener Maler aller Schulen, in alphabetischer Folge zusammengestellt. Berlin, Germany: Nicolaische, 1863.
• De Ris, L. Clément. "Le Musée de Frankfort-sur-le-Mein." Revue Universelle des Arts XIX (1864): 344-353.
• Vosmaer, Carel. Rembrandt, Sa Vie et Ses Oeuvres. La Haye: M. Nijhoff, 1877.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.