Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn( 1606-1669) or his Studio, Young woman in fantasy costume, first half 1650s, Oil on canvas, 74.0 x 61.0 cm, The Louvre, Paris
This painting is traditionally known as ‘Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels’. It is linked to other 1650s Rembrandt women found in the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Rembrandt scholars are hesitant to strictly catalogue these beautiful 1650s paintings as literal portraits of Rembrandt’s mistress and muse. These “idealised type” portraits of picturesque women were a strategic response to the art market’s demand for such works, and it appears that not only Rembrandt but also many of his pupils successfully met this demand and produced a significant number of these portraits, varying in style and explicitness. Here, the melancholic portrait beautifully reflects the well-studied Renaissance legacy, not merely as a tribute but as a revisitation of Titian’s school, a century later but in an Amsterdam setting.
There is no uncertainty about the age of this masterpiece. Still, there is no clear picture of how such portraits, including this one, were produced, as there is no trace of their early provenance, and it is unclear whether they were commissioned or made for art dealers. Despite this uncertainty, the enigmatic portrait shows that Rembrandt’s genius is full of mysteries, often lacks logic, and contains more exceptions than rules, which has fascinated art scholars for centuries.
