Hendrickje Stoffels (mid–1650s)

Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Hendrickje Stoffels
mid-1650s
Oil on canvas, 78.4 x 68.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

Hendrickje Stoffels, the daughter of a soldier, worked as Rembrandt’s housekeeper, eventually becoming his common-law wife and mother of his daughter, Cornelia. While no formal portraits of Stoffels survive, she is believed to have modeled for a number of Rembrandt’s paintings, including this work, perhaps intended as a generic image of a courtesan. The figure’s intimate gesture of holding her robe closed with one hand echoes the close observations Rembrandt made of the women in his household in many surviving drawings. (MET)

See also:

• Stoffels, Hendrickje (1626-1663)