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Title:Portrait of a Woman
Artist:Style of Rembrandt (Dutch, mid- to late 1640s)
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:47 5/8 x 38 5/8 in. (121 x 98.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.103
Inscription: Inscribed (left, on chair): Rembrandt f / 1643
baron Achille Seillière, Paris (by 1861–d. 1873); his daughter, Jeanne-Marguerite Seillière, princesse de Sagan, Paris (1873–92; sold to Durand-Ruel for Havemeyer); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1892; stock no. 967; sold to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1892–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 98 (as "Portrait of the Admiral's Wife," by Rembrandt) [2nd ed., 1958, no. 28, as "Portrait of the Admiral's Wife," by Rembrandt?].
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "Paintings by the Masters," May 5–June 2, 1946, unnumbered cat.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 4–November 23, 1947, unnumbered cat.
Iowa City. State University of Iowa, School of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 9–March 31, 1948, unnumbered cat.
Bloomington. Indiana University. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 18–May 16, 1948, no catalogue.
Lexington, Va. Washington and Lee University. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Exhibit," October 30, 1950–January 15, 1951, no. 11.
Athens, Ga. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. February 15–April 5, 1951, no catalogue?
Hempstead, N. Y. Hofstra College. "Metropolitan Museum Masterpieces," June 26–September 1, 1952, no. 23.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Dutch Couples: Pair Portraits by Rembrandt and his Contemporaries," January 23–March 5, 1973, no. 9 (as Attributed to Ferdinand Bol, with MMA 29.100.102).
Cincinnati. Taft Museum. "Dutch Couples: Rembrandt and His Contemporaries," December 15, 1973–March 3, 1974, unnumbered cat. (as Attributed to Ferdinand Bol).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A458.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 10, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 28.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
C. Vosmaer. Rembrandt, sa vie et ses ouevres. 2nd ed. The Hague, 1877, pp. 255–56, 534, lists it with its pendant, MMA 29.100.102, as in the Seillière collection in 1861; dates both pictures 1643.
Wilhelm [von] Bode. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883, pp. 458, 469, 598, no. 309.
Eugène Dutuit. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, pp. 52, 68, no. 302, states that this portrait and its pendant seem to come from the Erard sale of 1832.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Rembrandt-galerie. Stuttgart, 1886, text vol., no. 321.
Emile Michel. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. English ed. New York, 1894, vol. 2, p. 248, lists it among works recently acquired by American collectors.
W. Bode. "Alte Kunstwerke in den Sammlungen der Vereinigten Staaten." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 6, no. 1 (1895), p. 71, ill. p. 73.
Malcolm Bell. Rembrandt van Rijn and His Work. London, 1899, pp. 76, 185–86.
Wilhelm [von] Bode with the assistance of C. Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. Vol. 4, Paris, 1900, pp. 27, 124, 126, no. 267, pl. 267, as "A Young Woman Resting Her Right Hand with a Fan on the Back of a Chair," in the Havemeyer collection.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1904, p. 259, ill. p. 133.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1906, pp. 399, 413, ill. p. 205.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Ed. W. R. Valentiner. 3rd ed. Stuttgart, 1909, p. 558, ill. p. 271.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 6, London, 1916, pp. 359, 399–400, no. 871, states that it was possibly in the collection of Herman Becker in Amsterdam, and may be listed in the inventory of his estate, October 19, 1678.
John C. van Dyke. Rembrandt and His School. New York, 1923, p. 87, tentatively ascribes this picture and its pendant to Flinck.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 30–31, ill.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931, unpaginated, no. 78, pl. 78.
Alan Burroughs. "Some Shadowgraphs of Bol and Rembrandt." Creative Art 10 (June 1932), pp. 453, 457–60, figs. 3, 7, 10 (overall and shadowgraph details), attributes this work and its pendant to Bol.
A[braham]. Bredius. Rembrandt Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, p. 15, no. 364, pl. 364.
Alan Burroughs. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938, p. 157, notes that "the vagueness and flatness of the underpaint" relate the portraits to Bol, and states that "it would be rash to assume that Bol could not have painted them"; states that the woman's face was repainted in the eighteenth century
.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 82.
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 19–20.
Kurt Bauch. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, p. 25, pl. 504, as perhaps by Bol.
Paolo Lecaldano inL'opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt. Milan, 1969, ill. p. 131, includes it among works of doubtful attribution.
Horst Gerson, ed. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.. By A[braham]. Bredius. 3rd ed. London, 1969, p. 578, no. 364, ill. p. 285, calls it certainly by Bol.
Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, pp. 208–10 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].
Albert Blankert. Letter to John Walsh Jr. January 29, 1974, rejects an attribution to Bol.
Alan Levy. "The Rembrandt Research Project: Old Myths, New Methods." Art News 75 (September 1976), p. 42, ill. p. 41, quotes Bruyn regarding the doubtful attribution to Rembrandt.
J. Bolten and H. Bolten-Rempt. The Hidden Rembrandt. Milan, 1977, p. 189, no. 314, ill.
Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen. The Rembrandt Documents. New York, 1979, p. 237.
Werner Sumowski. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. Vol. 4, Ch. Paudiss–Anonyme. Landau/Pfalz, 1983–[94?], pp. 2876–77, 2884 n. 40, ill. p. 2907, as by an anonymous Rembrandt pupil.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 65, 256, describes how Durand-Ruel bought this picture and its pendant for the Havemeyers from the princesse de Sagan in June 1892 for $100,000 [sic].
Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, p. 46.
Volker Manuth. Letter to Walter Liedtke. August 21, 1992, doubts his earlier attribution [see Ref. 1991] to Victors.
Werner Sumowski. Letter to Walter Liedtke. October 13, 1992, suggests they are by Reynier van Gherwen.
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 19–20, 286–87, 294, 310 n. 38, p. 343 n. 443.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 213, pl. 193.
Walter A. Liedtke inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 63.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 375, no. A458, ill.
Walter Liedtke inRembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, "Paintings, Drawings, and Prints: Art-Historical Perspectives."New York, [1995], pp. 5, 23, 81, 103–7, no. 28, ill. (color), favors an attribution to Victors, about 1643–48.
Hubert von Sonnenburg. Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, "Paintings: Problems and Issues."New York, 1995, p. 27, fig. 22 (x-radiograph detail).
Debra Miller. Letter to Walter Liedtke. March 15, 1995, states that while she "wouldn't discount Victors completely, [she does] see at least as many indications of Bol's hand".
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 319, ill., as "Portrait of a Woman," Style of Rembrandt, Dutch, second or third quarter 17th century.
Esmée Quodbach. "'Rembrandt's "Gilder" is here': How America Got its First Rembrandt and France Lost Many of its Old Masters." Simiolus 31, no. 1/2 (2004), pp. 93–94, 99, fig. 3.
Catherine B. Scallen. Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship. Amsterdam, 2004, pp. 185, 358 n. 13.
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 15.
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 2, pp. 708, 718–23, no. 165, colorpl. 165.
Dagmar Hirschfelder. Tronie und Porträt in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 2008, pp. 272, 274 n. 52, p. 426, no. 485, colorpl. XXIV, pl.102, dates the pendants about 1645/48.
George S. Keyes inRembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 67, 83 n. 22.
This work is the pendant to Portrait of a Man with a Breastplate and Plumed Hat (The Met 29.100.102).
Hofstede de Groot (1916) suggests that this picture may have been in the collection of Herman Backer, Amsterdam, and included in the inventory of his estate, October 19, 1678. The inventory, published in A. Bredius, "Rembrandtiana," in Oud-Holland 28 (1910), lists a portrait of a woman resting her hand on a chair, by Rembrandt; there is, however, no conclusive evidence that this is The Met's painting.
Dutuit (1885) states that the pendants may come from the Erard sale of 1832. The sale includes a pair of pendant portraits by Rembrandt as no. 118, "Portraits de deux époux," but The Met's pictures vary in several details from the description in the sale catalogue.
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