Artwork story
About Portrait of a Woman
The artist and artwork
Ferdinand Bol painted Portrait of a Woman in 1642 in oil on canvas. The Met identifies it as one of three portraits of women bearing that year, the earliest known date inscribed on his paintings. The Dordrecht artist studied with Rembrandt in Amsterdam around 1636–41, and this portrait came just after that formative period. Bol adopted his teacher's attention to psychological presence while beginning the independent career that would make him one of Amsterdam's most successful portraitists.
The world around it
The portrait was made during the Dutch Republic's long war for independence from Spain, six years before sovereignty was formally recognized in 1648. Amsterdam's commerce and expanding urban society supported an experimental, competitive art market. The Met describes Dutch portraiture as a way to express identity and status amid unusual social mobility and diversity. Rembrandt had become a prominent Amsterdam portraitist and ran a large studio; his Night Watch also dates to 1642. Bol entered that market as his own master, carrying lessons from Rembrandt into a society where prosperous patrons used painted likenesses to make family position visible.
A detail to notice
The sitter's name is lost, although the painting makes her material world precise. Her face and overlapping hands emerge from a deep brown-black field, concentrating attention on a steady, slightly questioning gaze. Pearls appear in her hair, earrings, layered necklace, and stacked bracelets; rings mark both hands. An immense scalloped lace collar spreads over a dark dress, interrupted by a silver bow and a narrow green-and-black center panel. A closed brown folding fan enters at lower left beneath her hands. Bol shifts between textures, soft skin, crisp lace, reflective jewelry, dark cloth, and polished fan ribs, without letting the display overwhelm the person. As the Met observes, the portrait's strongest appeal is the sitter's sense of character despite all that wealth.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is painting made in Oil on canvas and held in the European Paintings department.
Recorded dimensions include 34 3/8 x 28 in. (87.3 x 71.1 cm).
Subject terms include Portraits and Women. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-24.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
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