Portrait of Agatha Bas

Rembrandt painted this portrait of Agatha Bas, wife of Amsterdam merchant Nicolaes van Bambeeck, in 1641 as a pendant to her husband's portrait. Agatha was thirty-two at the time of the commission. The painting is notable for Rembrandt's use of a trompe-l'oeil device: the sitter's hand appears to rest on a painted frame that simulates a real architectural ledge, blurring the boundary between the picture and the viewer's space. This device, which Rembrandt used in several portraits of this period, speaks to the Baroque fascination with illusion and pictorial address.

The illusionistic frame-ledge in the foreground is painted with deliberate trompe-l'oeil precision, while the figure behind it is rendered with Rembrandt's characteristic warm impasto. The black dress and white lace collar concentrate the eye on the face and hands. A subtle warm light from the left enlivens the sitter's complexion.