Portrait of a Woman,

ca. 1655–56

Jonson Van Ceulen, an artist of Flemish-German descent born in London, found success as a portraitist to English aristocracy before moving to The Netherlands in 1643. The fashionable woman in this portrait wears a tipmuts, a flat black cap that covers the crown of her head with an attached “ball” of the same material for her hair. Under the cap, she wears a metal oorijzer, a clamp placed around the head to keep the cap in place. Her only jewelry, pendant pearl earrings, are attached to the bottom of the oorijzer. The rich black garment, worn over a white satin gown with broad bands of bobbin lace edging the neckline, belonged to the artist rather than the lady; it appears in various of Jonson’s other portraits of women dating from 1649 to 1658. The artist likely painted their faces from life but their clothes from drapery in the studio, perhaps with the help of an assistant. He probably painted her hands from a study he drew from life in chalks on blue paper, a technique he might have learned from Van Dyck in London. The thinly painted blue background, unusual in Dutch portraiture, is probably made from indigo mixed with lead white. It has become more transparent with time, allowing the broadly brushed brown layer underneath to become more visible.