Portrait of a woman, half-length, possibly Madame de Montrouge

Though largely known today for his genre and historical subjects indebted to Caravaggio, Gerard van Kuijl was also a prolific portraitist. At some point in the second half of the 1620s he traveled to Italy via France, where he joined the Bentvueghels, a group of northern artists living in Rome, taking the nickname 'Stijgbeugel' ('stirrup'). The painting bears an early inscription on the back of the panel identifying the sitter as one 'Madame de Montrouge', suggesting it may have been painted whilst the artist was en route to or from Italy.