Artwork
Portrait of a young woman
Portrait of a young woman is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Nicolaes Maes. It dates from 1665 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work belongs to the portrait genre and reflects the status and domestic virtue associated with middle-class women in the Dutch Golden Age.
The painting shows a young woman in contemporary 17th-century dress, rendered in oil on canvas. Maes captures her with a direct gaze and subtle modeling of light, typical of Dutch portraiture of the period. The work belongs to the portrait genre and reflects the status and domestic virtue associated with middle-class women in the Dutch Golden Age. It is part of the Rijksmuseum's collection in Amsterdam, where it has been displayed since its acquisition.
Technique & Style
Portrait of a young woman is an oil painting executed on canvas, a standard support for seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture. According to the catalogue record, the work measures 73 cm in height by 59 cm in width, a modest upright format suited to a single half- or three-quarter-length sitter. The medium is identified as oil paint, and the painting is classified as a portrait within the genre tradition.
Stylistically, the work belongs to Nicolaes Maes's portrait practice of 1665, a period in which he produced refined, sensitively modelled likenesses of Dutch sitters. The canvas support and oil medium are consistent with the techniques typical of his mature portrait output held in the Rijksmuseum collection.
History & Provenance
The painting has been in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, where it remains held as part of the museum's holdings. According to the Wikidata record, the work is located at the Rijksmuseum and is catalogued under the institution's inventory.
No exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Nicolaes Maes painted the work in 1665, during the height of the Dutch Golden Age. Executed in oil on canvas, the piece is a portrait of a young woman and is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection.
Context
The painting reflects the 17th‑century Dutch emphasis on individual likeness and modest elegance. Portraits of young women often included pearls and restrained attire, signalling status and virtue within the social conventions of the period.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Nicolaes Maes (January 1634 – December 1693; buried 24 December 1693) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life.
- Portrait of a young woman
Portrait of a Young Woman
Portrait of a woman, thought to be Lucretia Boudaen
Portrait of Digna de Maets (?-before 1667)
Portrait of Volkera van Beresteyn (1624–1653), wife of Salomon van Schoonhoven (1617–1653)
Portrait of Geertruijd Coenen (1635-1716)
Digna de Maets. Wife of François Leydecker
Portret van een vrouw
Portrait of Jacoba Bicker (1640-95), wife of Pieter de Graeff
Portrait of Anna van den Corput, Wife of Jacob de Witt
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of Margaretha Godin (d. 1694), wife of the artist