Ritratto di giovane donna di profilo

1632 was the year Rembrandt moved from his home town of Leiden to Amsterdam and began taking the city's portrait commissions by storm. This is not one of them. It is what the Dutch called a tronie, a study of a striking face in invented costume rather than a paid likeness of a real client. The pleated white shirt nods back to fashion of a century before, and the gold-embroidered cape is pure invention on Rembrandt's part. Working like this, with no sitter to please, was how he practised the things that made the commissions so sought after: the fall of light across a cheek, the glint of thread, the way a face turned away from you still holds your attention.