Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman is a 1641 oil on panel painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet, now in Room 249 of the Hermitage Museum. Its subject is unknown, but a signature, date and inscription at bottom left shows she was thirty years old at the time - this is corroborated by her costume, which was in fashion in the 1640s. I A Sokolova, curator of Dutch paintings in the Hermitage, notes that “in the modeling of the face, monochrome parallel strokes in form are clearly visible, which have emerged as a result of the thinned upper paint layer”.