Portrait of a Woman

The authorship of this comparatively late work by Ravesteyn, a skilled painter who worked exclusively as a portraitist, has never been questioned. The effect of the woman's stern expression and somewhat outdated millstone ruff is softened by her small lace collar and delicate lace cap, and perhaps as well by the artist's brushwork. Ravesteyn was usually more attentive than his contemporaries Michiel van Miereveld or Paulus Moreelse were to visual effects, seen here in the textures of costume, face, and hair, in the moistness of the sitter's eyes, and in the diaphanous plane of the cap. Details of dress in Dutch formal portraits are usually faithful reflections of the sitter's own clothing; an item such as the cap would have been lent to the artist if both parties found it convenient.

The portrait may have had a pendant, but no trace of one is known.

[2016; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Inscription: Signed and dated (upper right): Anno 1635 / JVR. [monogram] F.

Henry Goldman, New York (until 1912)

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.

H[orst]. Gerson in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 28, Leipzig, 1934, p. 53.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 80.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 297, ill.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 544–45, no. 140, colorpl. 140.

Silvia A. Centeno and Dorothy Mahon. "The Chemistry of Aging in Oil Paintings: Metal Soaps and Visual Changes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 67 (Summer 2009), pp. 16–19, 46 nn. 8–9, figs. 27 (color, before treatment), 28 (color detail, before cleaning), 29 (color), 30 (scanning electron microscope image).

Stijn Alsteens in Stijn Alsteens and Adam Eaker. Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2016, pp. 165, 167 n. 5, fig. 100 (color).