Portrait of a lady in a golden dress with a blue mantle

Portrait of a Lady in a Golden Dress with a Blue Mantle from 1678 by Nicolaes Maes is one of his most colorfully dressed female portraits. The golden dress and blue mantle create a striking color combination that reflects the fashionable opulence of the late Dutch Golden Age. Maes trained with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1650s before establishing himself as an independent master. His mature portrait style absorbed Flemish elegance — producing fashionable likenesses with looser brushwo...

The luxurious costume is rendered with particular care, the golden fabric and blue drapery creating vivid chromatic effects that demonstrate Maes's skill with textile textures.