Portrait of a Woman
1642
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
34 3/8 x 28 in. (87.3 x 71.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
Accession Number
30.95.269
Tags
Art Historical Context
Ferdinand Bol's *Portrait of a Woman*1642) captures the elegance of the Dutch Golden Age a period when portraiture flourished amid economic prosperity and cultural refinement in the Netherlands. Bol, a talented pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn, trained in his master's Amsterdam workshop during the 1630s and early 1640s, techniques that elevated portrait painting to new heights of psychological depth and realism. This oil-on-canvas work, measuring 34 3/8 x 28 inches, exemplifies the era's demand for intimate, status-affirming likenesses of women from affluent circles. Rendered in the rich, luminous...
About the Artist
Ferdinand Bol · 1616–1680
As a very young man, Bol moved to Amsterdam, where he worked under the direction of Rembrandt, with whom he formed a friendship. Comment on works: Religious; History; Portraits