Portrait of a Woman (1646): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Woman (1646) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Govaert Flinck (Dutch, 1615–1660).

The work and its context

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

Because of an inscription on the back, this painting was long considered a portrait of Anna Maria van Schurman, a prominent Dutch scholar and artist. These words, however, were added much later and incorrectly state that Anna Maria was 42 years old, when in reality she would have been 39. Furthermore, Flinck's likeness does not resemble other known portraits of this famous woman. Although her identity remains unknown, his sitter has an austere dignity and emotional complexity that captures her individuality through the careful description of her expression and dress. Due to this naturalism and elegant formality, Flinck achieved wealth and a high social standing throughout the 1640s as one of Amsterdam's most popular portraitists, rivaling his former master, Rembrandt. Joachim Sandrart, a contemporary German painter, once commented that compared to Rembrandt's portraits, Flinck's "were more felicitous in the exactness and in the pleasing quality of the portrayal."

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Woman
• Date: 1646
• Creator attribution: Govaert Flinck (Dutch, 1615–1660)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 101 x 90 x 5.5 cm (39 3/4 x 35 7/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 71.5 x 59.5 cm (28 1/8 x 23 7/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1977.117

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Roos, Cornelis François. Tableaux anciens. March 14-15, 1882.
• Christie, Manson & Woods. Ancient and Modern Pictures and Water-Colour Drawings. 1899.
• Frederik Muller & Cie. Tableaux Anciens. November 6-9, 1900.

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.