Portrait of Cornelia Claesdr Vooght

Frans Hals painted Portrait of Cornelia Claesdr Vooght around 1631, a pendant to his portrait of her husband Nicolaes Vooght (both now in the Rijksmuseum). The pendant portrait required compositional coordination between the two works: Cornelia turns slightly toward the space occupied by her husband's portrait when the works hang together, her gaze directed toward his absent presence. Hals's treatment is characteristic of his female portraiture: the dark dress and white lace rendered with careful attention to the different textures and light-catching qualities of each fabric element, while the face — specific, alert, self-possessed — reveals the individual behind the social convention of the commissioned portrait.

The monumental ruff encircling the sitter's face is a tour de force of Hals's technique, the crisp white lace rendered with precise yet seemingly effortless strokes that capture the fabric's complex architecture.