Old Woman

In the 1630s most painted faces belonged to someone who had paid for them, a merchant, a magistrate, a wife in her best clothes. This one did not. Brouwer painted an old woman for her face alone, the loosened skin, the set of the mouth, the eyes gone a little dim. It is a small panel, a bit over 20 centimetres tall, oil on wood. Pictures like this were called tronies, studies of a head made to catch a type and an expression rather than to flatter a client. He gives her no fine dress and no story, only close attention. The museum in Basel keeps several of his small panels like this one.