Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater
Frans Hals·1638
Historical Context
Hals's Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater (1638) at the Cleveland Museum, if correctly identified, depicts the wife or relative of a Haarlem artist — giving the work additional significance as a document of the social world in which Haarlem's painters operated. Hals's female portrait, with its direct gaze and the sitter's composed, slightly challenging expression, is characteristic of his refusal to reduce his female subjects to conventional feminine passivity. The specific quality of the woman's attention — focused, intelligent, present — creates an image of female individuality within the formal conventions of seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture.
Technical Analysis
Hals models the face with warm, naturalistic flesh tones using visible, confident brushstrokes. The starched white collar is rendered with masterful economy — a few bold strokes of white and gray create the illusion of crisp linen. The dark costume is enlivened by subtle variations in the black pigments.
Provenance
Private collection, Amsterdam; (Jeronimo de Vries/Johannes Albertus Brondgeest, Amsterdam, sale, September 15, 1851, no. 198, fl. 40 [with pendant], to Brondgeest [bought in]); Baron Anselm Mayer von Rothschild (1803–1874), Vienna (inv. AR705), by descent to his son, Baron Albert von Rothschild; Baron Albert von Rothschild (1844-1911), Vienna, by descent to his son, Alphonse von Rothschild; Baron Alphonse von Rothschild (1878-1942), until confiscated by the Nazis in March 1938.; In the possession of the Nazis. Apparently intended for the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, but kept at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck. By 1945 stored in the salt mines at Alt Aussee.; In possession of the Allies. Restituted to Alphose von Rothschild's widow, Baroness Clarice de Rothschild.; Baroness Clarice de Rothschild (1894-1967); sold to Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York; (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
