Portrait of Margaretha de Geer

The great pleated collar round her neck is a millstone ruff, and by the time she sat for this portrait, around 1661, it was about 40 years out of date. It had been the height of fashion in the 1620s. Margaretha de Geer was 79. She had been married to Jacob Trip for almost six decades, they had 12 children, and her husband was dying, or had already died, as the work went on. The painter treats the ruff with great care, each starched fold crisp, and gives the same attention to her hands, down to the blue veins and the dry, yellowish sheen of old skin. In her right hand she holds a white handkerchief. The National Gallery suggests it may be simply an accessory, or a sign of mourning Rembrandt added after Jacob's death. She outlived him by about ten years.