Portrait of Petronella Buys

This is one half of a pair. Rembrandt painted Petronella Buys in 1635, a few months after her marriage, and painted her husband, Philips Lucasz, on a matching portrait that now hangs in London. Lucasz was a senior officer of the Dutch East India Company, and the two had met in Batavia, the company's fortified town on Java, half a world from Amsterdam. Her pearls, the stiff white lace ruff and the gold chains are the uniform of that new colonial wealth flowing back into the Dutch Republic. Rembrandt was in his late 20s and the most sought-after portraitist in the city, working fast to keep up with the demand. The couple sailed east again not long after, and Lucasz died at sea in 1641.