Busto di giovane donna sorridente, forse Saskia van Uylenburgh

In 1633 Rembrandt was 26 and newly arrived in Amsterdam, building a busy portrait practice and about to get engaged to Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of his art dealer. She was 21 that year, and most scholars believe this is her, glancing out from under a red plumed hat with a half-smile. It isn't a formal commission. Rembrandt painted it fast and loose, letting the brushwork show, the kind of thing a young painter does for himself rather than a client. The panel was later trimmed down, which is why she sits so close to the edge. The Rembrandt specialists who reexamined it call it authentic, signed and dated in the year he and Saskia's lives joined.