A Woman Bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?)

Rembrandt painted this in 1654, the same year the woman who probably modeled for it was called to answer for their life together. That summer Hendrickje Stoffels, pregnant and unmarried, stood before the council of the Amsterdam church, was rebuked for living with the painter, and barred from communion. Rembrandt could not marry her without losing income left in trust by his late wife. None of that strain shows here. She wades knee-deep into a dark stream, lifting her shift clear of the water, looking down with a small private smile. The paint is loose and quick, an oil study blown up to the size of a finished picture, the white linen laid on in a few broad strokes.