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Your galleryPortrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater
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Look closely at her hairline, where soft blended strokes suggest single strands, then compare it with the crisp lace of her cap, ruff and cuffs.
The sitter is probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater, married to Jan de Wael, a Haarlem brewer who served as mayor, and the inscription gives her age as 41 in 1638. The Cleveland Museum of Art notes that Hals worked wet into wet here, adding fresh paint before the layers beneath had dried, so that his strokes blend softly into one another.
oil on canvas · Framed: 82 x 67 x 6.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Dutch Golden Age
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater
- Artist
- Frans Hals (Dutch, c. 1581–1666)
- Date
- 1638
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 82 x 67 x 6.5 cm (32 5/16 x 26 3/8 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 66.5 x 52.3 cm (26 3/16 x 20 9/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.