Femme à l'œillet

By the early 1660s Rembrandt had been through bankruptcy and the forced sale of his house and collection, and he was painting with a loose, heavily worked surface that some contemporaries found unfinished. This woman holds a pink, a carnation that stood for love and marriage, and she wears clothes already old-fashioned in her own day, a deliberate nod back to an earlier century. She has a companion picture, a man with a magnifying glass, most likely her husband. The two are thought to be the Amsterdam auctioneer Pieter Haringh and his wife Elizabeth Delft. A gilt picture frame glints behind her in the gloom, yet Rembrandt saves most of his attention for the shadowed, thoughtful face.