Artwork
Portrait of a woman
Portrait of a woman is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Willem Cornelisz Duyster. It dates from 1629 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
This painting shows a woman dressed in dark clothes with a high white collar and a lace cap.
This painting shows a woman dressed in dark clothes with a high white collar and a lace cap. Her hands rest on a folded piece of paper, and she wears a simple gold ring. The background is a plain yellow circle, and the painting looks slightly worn.
The woman’s outfit suggests she might have been someone of some standing. The date on the painting is 1629, which gives a clue about the time period.
Next, look up chiaroscuro to see how light and shadow create depth in paintings.
Subject & Meaning
The work depicts a married woman identified by a millstone collar and diadem cap, symbols of marital status in 17th-century Amsterdam. Her portrait serves as a status marker reflecting the sitter's bourgeois position and the merchant class's emphasis on family lineage.
Technique & Style
Portrait of a woman is executed in oil paint on a copper support, a small-scale and finely detailed format measuring 14.9 cm in height by 11.5 cm in width. The copper ground allowed for the smooth, enamel-like surface finish associated with Dutch seventeenth-century cabinet paintings, lending itself to the precise rendering of fabrics and accessories such as the sitter's millstone collar and diadem cap. The work is classified as a portrait and depicts a single female figure, consistent with the intimate, jewel-like handling typical of Willem Cornelisz Duyster's portrait practice.
History & Provenance
The copper panel Portrait of a Woman by Willem Cornelisz Duyster is dated 1629, placing it early in his career during the Dutch Golden Age. The painting entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum, where it remains held today. Its small scale (14.9 × 11.5 cm) and support suggest it was conceived as a private, intimate portrait rather than a public commission.
No documented records link the sitter to a specific patron or provenance beyond the museum's holdings, indicating its early history remains undocumented.
Overview
Willem Cornelisz Duyster’s Portrait of a Woman dates from 1629 and is executed on a copper support. The work is held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It presents a single sitter in a restrained pose, her hands resting on a folded sheet of paper, set against a plain yellow circular background.
Context
While Duyster is chiefly known for genre scenes of military life, this portrait demonstrates his ability to render individual likenesses. The attire aligns with contemporary fashion among the Dutch middle class, and the use of copper as a substrate was a common practice for works intended for private ownership or collection.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Willem Cornelisz Duyster (1599–1635) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Amsterdam, best known for his "guardroom scenes" (cortegaarddje), genre paintings showing the military life.
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