The Story
Young Woman in a Pearl Necklace (after 1655) is an oil on canvas painting by an unknown painter, after a painting by the Dutch painter Willem Drost. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The woman is looking at the viewer and is wearing a red bodice that is slightly open to reveal a pearl necklace. This painting was documented in 1914 by Hofstede de Groot as a Rembrandt.
It had just been acquired the year before through the Benjamin Altman bequest and was considered one of the gems of the collection. Hofstede de Groot thought he saw a portrait of Rembrandt's wife Hendrickje Stoffels and wrote; "719. HENDRICKJE STOFFELS. Half-length. She sits, inclined to the right, bending her head and looking at the spectator. With the right hand she puts a string of pearls on her left wrist. Her red gown is cut out at the bosom, and the pleated chemisette is open; on her bare breast lies a pearl necklace.
Executed in Oil on wood, measuring Overall, with added strips, 8 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (21.6 x 18.4 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
