Portrait of Catharina van Noort, the artist's wife

This portrait of Catharina van Noort, Jordaens's wife, around 1620, is an intimate record of the artist's domestic life. Catharina was the daughter of Jordaens's teacher Adam van Noort, and their marriage linked the artist to one of Antwerp's established painting families. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The portrait combines domestic informality with careful observation of the sitter's features. Jordaens's warm palette and fluid brushwork create a sense of living presence that distinguishes this from more formal Flemish portrait conventions.