Oval Portrait of a Woman (Rembrandt, New York)

Several oval portraits of women of 17th-century Amsterdam have survived. Some are pendants and others are individual portraits. This painting has been attributed to Rembrandt since the 19th-century, but the name of the sitter is unknown. This painting came into the collection via the Benjamin Altman bequest.

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1914, who wrote; "867. A WOMAN WITH A WHITE CAP AND RUFF. B.-HdG. 561. Half-length, without hands ; life size. She is seen almost in full face, looking at the spectator. She is in black. Dark background. The light falls from the left at top. Signed to the left above the shoulder, "Rembrandt f. 1633"; oval oak panel, 26 1/2 inches by 20 inches. In the collection of Prince Radziwill, at the castle of Nieswiz, Lithuania. Sale. Lachnicki, Paris, June 15, 1867. In the Lachnicki collection, Warsaw. In the possession of F. Kleinberger, Paris. In the collection of B. Altman, New York ; bequeathed as a whole in 1913 to the Museum. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York."[2]

Other notable oval portraits of women of North Holland from the same period are:

• 
  Portrait of Maertgen Bilderbeecq, 1633 by Rembrandt
• 
  Portrait of Petronella Buys, 1635 by Rembrandt's workshop
• 
  Portrait of Cornelia Pronck, 1633 by Rembrandt
• 
  Portrait of Haesje van Cleyburg, dated 1634 by Rembrandt
• 
  Portrait of Maria Larp, 1635-38 by Frans Hals
• 
  Portrait of a 62-year-old Woman, 1632 by Rembrandt

• Cat. no. 145 in Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Volume I, by Walter Liedtke, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007

• Portrait of a woman, 1633 gedateerd in the RKD
• Portrait of a Woman in the Rembrandt Research Project