Portrait of a lady, aged 68, seated half-length

Nicolaes Maes trained with Rembrandt in his studio from 1648 to 1653 and is among the most important of his disciples. While his early paintings owe a clear debt to his master’s work of the mid-1640s, during the 1660s, Maes' technique becomes increasingly grounded in the Flemish mode of portraiture developed by van Dyck and introduced to the northern Netherlands by artists such as Govaert Flinck, Adriaen Hanneman and Jan Mijtens. The present portrait is an exception: while the detailed painting of the costume demonstrates a bravura typical of his mature style, the subdued palette and emphasis on the human qualities of the sitter – her hands; her smile as she looks up from her Bible – are more reminiscent of Maes’ early work. The unusual amalgamation of late Maes with the Rembrandtism of his early years accords this canvas a particular fascination.