La Cuisinière

Around 1651 Rembrandt kept returning to a simple idea: a young woman leaning at a window, caught somewhere between a portrait and an everyday scene. He was in his mid-forties in Amsterdam, his most fashionable years behind him and money troubles ahead. This girl rests her head on one hand and looks straight out, her red jacket glowing against a dark ground. Nobody knows who she was; the name kitchen maid was attached to her later. Rembrandt built her with broad, loaded strokes, letting the light do the describing rather than fine detail. The painting reached Sweden before the century was out and has been treasured there ever since.