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Portrait of a Middle-Aged Woman with Hands Folded

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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The sitter looms out of this painting in a rather imposing way, filling much more of the picture space than do the figures in most of Hals’s portraits. However, since it was first made, the picture seems to have been cut down at the sides and the bottom, amplifying the sense of the sitter’s size relative to the framing of the portrait. The impression we get today may be different to Hals’s original design. But Hals was clearly always concerned with emphasising the sitter’s rather solid appearance. By setting her hands in her lap and her forearms at right angles in front of her body, he has created a wide base for her triangular form. And within that triangle, he has focused on broad, sweeping curves – the roundness of her shoulders, the circular white ruff and the swell of her double chin.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Portrait of a Middle-Aged Woman with Hands Folded

Date

about 1635-40

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 61.4 x W 47 cm

Accession number

NG1021

Acquisition method

Bought (Lewis Fund), 1876

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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