Portrait of a Young Woman

In 1768 Prince William V of Orange bought the whole picture collection of the Hague collector Govert van Slingelandt in one purchase, before it could be dispersed at auction. This portrait came with it, one of two panels of young women by Rubens and his studio. For a long time the pair were taken for Rubens's two wives, and this one for Isabella Brant, whom he married in Antwerp in 1609. The Mauritshuis, which owns the painting, now says only that the sitter is unknown.

On the back of the panel is the brand of Michiel Vriendt, an Antwerp panel-maker, so the wood was prepared in the city where Rubens worked. The museum dates the picture to the 1620s.

It hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V in The Hague, the picture gallery the prince opened to visitors in 1774.