Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan

Catalogue number: Bredius 341.

This large Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan is a pendant to the Portrait of a Man Rising from his Chair (Bredius 172). The paintings were separated some time before 1793.

In Holland, the design of pendant (or pair) portraits remained conservative through the 1620s, in part drawing on the heritage of Spanish court portraiture, and in part on the more recent influence of formal models from England. The present portraits, in which the figures are presented to the viewer and connected with each other in inventive way, represent Rembrandt's departure from the conservative norm. His experiments in this vein were partly inspired by Anthony van Dyck.

In the present painting, Rembrandt takes over from Van Dyck the confident pose, full modelling of the black satin dress, and the hint of movement in the figure. By spreading out the woman's hands and positioning her shoulders parallel to the picture plane, Rembrandt introduces that element of pictorial surprise which is so characteristic of him. The companion portrait of the woman's husband, now in Cincinnati, which shows him rising from his chair and extending his hand in a gesture of welcome, is even more startling.