Portrait of a Young Girl

Portrait paintings were a common household item in the 1600s, a period known as the Dutch Golden Age. These portraits would stay within the family, passed down for generations, documenting the life and clothing of ancestors. In this painting, the young woman is dressed in a plain black gown, laced bodice, headpiece, and a collar typical of the 1650s. Her identity is unknown, though she was clearly a lady of a comfortable class in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Each Dutch city during the Golden Age had at least one counterfeiter (portrait painter) to support the era’s high demand for portraitures.