1655 (ca.), Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrickje Stoffels -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Hendrickje Stoffels, the daughter of a soldier, worked as Rembrandt's housekeeper, eventually becoming his common-law wife and mother of their daughter, Cornelia. While no formal portraits of Stoffels survive, she is believed to have modeled for a number of Rembrandt's paintings, including this work, perhaps intended as a generic image of a courtesan. The figure's intimate gesture of holding her robe closed with one hand echoes the close observations Rembrandt made of the women in his household in many surviving drawings.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.
1655 (ca.), Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrickje Stoffels -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Hendrickje Stoffels, the daughter of a soldier, worked as Rembrandt's housekeeper, eventually becoming his common-law wife and mother of their daughter, Cornelia. While no formal portraits of Stoffels survive, she is believed to have modeled for a number of Rembrandt's paintings, including this work, perhaps intended as a generic image of a courtesan. The figure's intimate gesture of holding her robe closed with one hand echoes the close observations Rembrandt made of the women in his household in many surviving drawings.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.