Portrait of a Woman

Nicolaes Maes · c. 1655

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

30 × 26.5 cm (11 13/16 × 10 7/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Portrait of a Woman radiates the quiet dignity that defines Dutch Golden Age portraiture at its most intimate — a single figure rendered with warmth and psychological weight that draws the eye inward rather than outward. Nicolaes Maes trained directly under Rembrandt in Amsterdam during the early 1650s, and his early work carries the master's hallmarks: rich, warm shadows, a restrained palette of ochres and dark browns, and a sensitivity to the sitter's inner life that elevates portraiture beyond mere likeness. Painted on panel around 1655, this work sits at the height of Maes's Rembrandtesque period, before he later shifted toward the cooler, more fashionable Flemish style he adopted later in his career. The textures — fabric folds, skin, the subtle fall of light across the face — are handled with a craftsman's patience. Maes was one of the few pupils Rembrandt trained who genuinely absorbed his teacher's approach to light rather than simply copying its surface effects, making works from this period particularly prized by collectors and scholars alike. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made to order on linen canvas, faithfully replicating Maes's tonal depth and surface quality so the warmth of the original translates into your space exactly as intended.