Portrait of a woman with a fan

This 1643 Portrait of a Woman with a Fan, in private hands, captures a member of Amsterdam's prosperous burgher class at a moment of relative stability in Rembrandt's career — after Saskia's death in 1642 and before the financial difficulties of the late 1640s and 1650s. The fan was a luxury accessory imported through VOC trade networks from the Far East and the Levant, and its presence in a portrait signaled both the sitter's awareness of fashion and the material prosperity that enabled fashion's consumption. Rembrandt's treatment of the fan — its feathers rendered with the same fine observation he brought to lace and fur — is characteristic of the middle period when his technical facility was at its greatest. The 114.5 × 98 cm scale suggests a three-quarter length pendant format, almost certainly matched by a portrait of the sitter's husband, though the pendant's location is uncertain. The large size of private Rembrandt holdings reflects how many of his portrait commissions passed directly from family ownership into the private market.

Rembrandt renders the sitter with his characteristic balance of detailed costume rendering and psychologically perceptive facial treatment, using warm lighting to create a sense of intimate presence.