Young Woman in Fantasy Costume by Rembrandt

Young Woman in Fantasy Costume is Rembrandt's portrait of his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh, painted in 1633, a year before they married. It hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Her eyes meet yours directly. Each tiny highlight was placed with a single stroke of white. A jeweled hair ornament. A lace collar. Luminous pearls. A dark gown trimmed in gold. And on the dark background behind her, almost invisible: Rembrandt's signature.

He was twenty-seven, a rising portraitist in Amsterdam. He met Saskia through her cousin, an art dealer. They married in 1634. The theatrical costume was a fashionable genre: fantasy portraits dressed sitters in imagined clothing rather than their own.

It is a portrait and a love letter in one. Next time you stand before a Rembrandt, look for the signature. It is often there, nearly invisible, waiting.