Ritratto di Catrina Hoogsaet

In 1656 the Amsterdam courts had declared Rembrandt insolvent, and through 1657 and 1658 the bailiffs were selling off his art collection, his prints, even his house. In the middle of that he took this commission from Catrina Hoogsaet, a well-off woman of about 50. She belonged to the Mennonites, a plain-living Protestant sect, which is why she wears sober black with a white cap and collar. But the silk is expensive, and she knew it. Rembrandt gave her a pose painters usually saved for men: hand resting on the arm of the chair, turned to meet you directly. She lived apart from her husband, and he is nowhere in the picture. On the wall behind her hangs a small line of text and a grey parrot on its perch.