Where can I see Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560)?

Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560) is held by Rijksmuseum.

What movement is Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560)?

Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560) is associated with Mannerism.

Artwork

Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560)

Portrait of Clara Boogaart (...-1560) is an oil painting. It dates from 1540 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. The work is an oil painting portraying a woman in a dark, hooded garment with a white collar.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

The portrait depicts Clara Boogaart, a sitter identified by the painting's title and recorded as its main subject.

The portrait depicts Clara Boogaart, a sitter identified by the painting's title and recorded as its main subject. She is shown wearing a huik, a traditional Flemish hooded cloak, along with a diadem cap, the two garments specifically catalogued as elements depicted in the work. Together, these items function as the principal iconographic markers of the composition, signaling both the sitter's identity and her social standing within the conventions of mid-sixteenth-century Netherlandish portraiture.

Rendered in oil on panel, the 1540 portrait presents Clara Boogaart as an individual woman rather than as an allegorical or religious figure, with the huik and diadem cap carrying the primary symbolic weight. Such attire was associated with respectable married or widowed women of the period, so the garments likely communicate her marital status and civic respectability rather than any narrative or devotional meaning.

Technique & Style

The work is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, measuring 67.5 cm by 56 cm, and depicts Clara Boogaart wearing a huik and a diadem cap. It belongs to the portrait genre and was created in 1540. The painting is part of the Huis Van Gijn collection at the Rijksmuseum, where it remains on display.

History & Provenance

The portrait of Clara Boogaart was painted in 1540, executed in oil on panel. According to the Wikidata record for the work, it is held in the collection of the Huis Van Gijn, with the Rijksmuseum also listed as an associated collection, and its current location is the Huis Van Gijn. The sources do not document the circumstances of its commission, the artist responsible, or the chain of ownership by which it passed from its creation in 1540 to its present institutional custody.

The work is housed in the Huis Van Gijn collection at the Rijksmuseum. Its inventory number is not specified in the sources. The painting was exhibited in the Rijksmuseum's 2019 exhibition 'Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the 15th to 17th Century'.

Context

The work is classified as a portrait painting created in 1540 using oil on panel, depicting Clara Boogaart wearing a huik and diadem cap. It belongs to the portrait genre and is part of the collection at Huis Van Gijn, Rijksmuseum, where it is housed in the artist's hometown context. Scholarship situates the piece within early Netherlandish portraiture traditions, emphasizing its role in documenting elite civic identity through formalized attire and symbolic accessories characteristic of mid-sixteenth-century Dutch visual culture.

Overview

The work is an oil painting portraying a woman in a dark, hooded garment with a white collar. She sits before a plain, dark background, her hands folded and her expression solemn, directing the viewer’s focus to her face.