Portrait of Elisabeth de Vlaming van Outshoorn (1600-1666)

This 1660 portrait of Elisabeth de Vlaming van Outshoorn belongs to the formal portrait commissions that became the mainstay of Bol's practice after he left Rembrandt's orbit. Elisabeth, born 1600, was sixty at the time of her portrait—a mature woman of the Amsterdam elite whose status is signaled by her dress, bearing, and the prestige of having Bol, one of the city's leading portraitists, paint her likeness. By 1660 Bol had largely abandoned the Rembrandtesque chiaroscuro of his early career in favor of a more courtly, Flemish-influenced elegance suited to the increasingly wealthy and internationally oriented Amsterdam merchant class. The portrait documents the social networks within which Bol worked.

The portrait renders the sitter with the refined elegance that distinguished Bol's mature style from Rembrandt's more psychologically probing approach, the smooth finish and careful attention to costume reflecting the sitter's social status.