Portrait of a woman aged 28

Frans Hals's Portrait of a Woman Aged 28 of around 1634 depicts a young Haarlem woman in her late twenties with the freshness and vitality appropriate to a woman in her prime, the age inscription documenting the portrait's biographical specificity. The woman's slight forward lean and her direct engagement with the viewer create a portrait of unusual psychological energy for a formal female commission, and Hals's brushwork captures the quality of young skin and animated expression with the immediacy of direct observation.

Hals paints the young woman's face with particular freshness, the rosy complexion rendered in warm, luminous tones that convey health and vitality. The elaborate collar is handled with confident economy, each fold of starched linen captured in a single decisive stroke.