Portrait of a Young Woman (“TheMiddendorf Rembrandt”)
Rembrandt van Rijn
(Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam)1633
oil on oval panel
62.4 x 50.4 cm
signed and dated at lower left: “Rembrant f. /1633”
RR-126© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Young Woman (“The Middendorf Rembrandt”)” (2021). Revised by Lara YeagerCrasselt (2022). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt.
New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

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The young woman in this bust-length portrait captivates the beholder with her

Comparative Figuresbeguiling gaze and unassuming smile. Her wide, engaging eyes, creamy complexion,
and flushed cheeks suggest a gentle, reserved demeanor. Light falling from the upper
left illuminates her face, the lace-trimmed coif adorning her hair, and her gold
necklace, which glistens as it rests atop her millstone ruff collar.
Rembrandt van Rijn depicted his sitter with great care and sensitivity using wellblended, assured brushstrokes to define her cheekbones, small chin, round nose, andwide forehead. A cool, even light falls across the composition, and shadows along theleft side of her face have been rendered with areas of gray applied thinly overunderlying flesh tones. Rembrandt applied white highlights to the bridge of her noseand eyes, and he used long, thin strokes as well as short dabs of white to define theindividual pleats of her collar. He left a brownish-yellow underpainting visible insome of the lobes of the collar, revealing the black costume beneath it and evoking a
sense of plasticity and depth. The illusionistic “see-through” effect of the woman’s

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait ofPetronella Buys, 1635, oil on oval
panel, 79.5 x 59.3 cm, The Leiden
Collection, New York, inv. no.
RR-115.

cap, though likely overemphasized on the right as a result of abrasion from a previous
restoration, has been rendered with sketchier gray brushwork to create translucency inthe lace coif.[1] For the depiction of the trim, Rembrandt employed a new techniqueof applying black paint over white. He also used various tones of gray and short,quick highlights to animate the intricate pattern of lace fabric.[2]Rembrandt executed this striking portrait in 1633, shortly after having settled in
Amsterdam to head up the workshop of the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh(1584/89–ca. 1660).[3] The Dutch Republic’s role on the global stage through tradeand seafaring brought significant wealth to the provinces and contributed to theflourishing art market in Amsterdam, particularly for portraiture.[4] From 1632 to
1635, Rembrandt oversaw the activities of Uylenburgh’s bustling studio. Because of
the dynamic manner in which he captured the physical and psychologicalindividuality of each of his sitters, he quickly rose to become one of the leading
portraitists in the city.[5] Rembrandt received dozens of portrait commissions in the

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait ofMaertgen van Bilderbeecq, 1633, oil on
oval panel, 67.4 x 55.2 cm, Städel
Museum, Frankfurt am Main, inv. no.
912, © bpk Bildagentur / Art
Resource, NY.

1630s, including Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat (1633), Portrait of Petronella Buys
(1635) (fig 1), and Portrait of Antonie Coopal (1635) in The Leiden Collection.
Although the identity of this sitter is unknown, her conservative black dress, coupledwith its attractive and fashionable adornments, indicates that she belonged to one of
the well-to-do families who patronized Rembrandt in this decade.[6]Portrait of a Young Woman is consistent with Rembrandt’s portraits of other female
sitters from 1633, including Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq in Frankfurt (fig 2)
and Portrait of a Woman in Braunschweig (fig 3).[7] In each of these works,
Rembrandt illuminated the figure with bright, even lighting, and he modeled the© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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subjects’ features with comparably smooth, controlled brushstrokes. Both the plump,ruddy-cheeked Van Bilderbeecq and the more restrained woman in the Braunschweig
painting are turned to the left in three-quarter view and wear large ruff collars andtranslucent caps with lace-trimmed edges. The sitter in the latter painting also has agold-chained necklace that she wears tight to her neck, and, as in Portrait of a Young
Woman, the thickly painted gold links give the necklace an appealing texture andweight (fig 4).
The refined character of Portrait of a Young Woman earned it admiration among
early scholars and collectors. In 1836, the English dealer John Smith(1781–1855)—who owned the portrait himself not long thereafter—praised the work
as “a carefully finished picture” by the master.[8] Nearly a century later, in 1923, Otto
Hirschmann exclaimed how, “in a stroke,” Rembrandt had surpassed “the older
generation of Amsterdam portrait painters . . . with the unpretentious self-assurancewith which he portrayed this girl, as if there were no difficulties of representation to

Fig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait ofa Woman, 1633, oil on oval panel, 63
x 48 cm, Herzog Anton UlrichMuseum, Braunschweig, inv. no. GG
233, © bpk Bildagentur / photo:
Ursula Edelmann / Art Resource, NY.

overcome.”[9] The painting’s distinguished provenance likewise reflects the highregard in which it has been held. Among its notable nineteenth- and twentieth-century
owners were Thomas Turton (1780–1864), the Bishop of Ely; Sir John Poynder
Dickson-Poynder (1866–1914), the first Lord Islington, who kept the painting at
Hilmarton Manor in Wiltshire; and the New York collector Frederick Brown, whose
acquisition of the portrait in 1925 was heralded in newspapers along the East
Coast.[10]In 1986, however, the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) brought into question the
traditional attribution of Portrait of a Young Woman to Rembrandt and argued that it
was likely executed by an assistant in the master’s studio.[11] The RRP concluded thatcertain aspects of the painting’s handling, including what they described as its

Fig 4. Rembrandt van Rijn, detail ofPortrait of a Woman, 1633, oil on oval
panel, 63 x 48 cm, Herzog Anton
Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv.
no. GG 233, © bpk Bildagentur /photo: Ursula Edelmann / Art
Resource, NY.

“undifferentiated” and smooth manner of execution, differed from Rembrandt’s
technique.[12] Nevertheless, and somewhat inconsistently, the RRP closely associatedPortrait of a Young Woman with Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq, also dated
1633, which it fully attributed to Rembrandt. Describing similarities in the use of
motifs, the application of paint in the lace and the ruff, including in the preparatory
stage, and the distribution of light and shade across the sitters’ faces, the RRP’s
authors judged the works to be “so alike that one has to conclude that there is somedirect link between [them] and that they were probably produced in the sameworkshop.”[13]Rembrandt painted many portraits completely by himself in the early 1630s, but healso worked closely with assistants when producing others. There is no stylistic ortechnical reason to believe that Portrait of a Young Woman is this kind ofcollaborative work, however, and the full attribution to Rembrandt is entirely

Fig 5. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait ofa Man in a Red Coat, 1633, oil on oval
panel, 63.7 x 50.8 cm, The Leiden
Collection, New York, inv. no.
RR-108.

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convincing. Just how Uylenburgh’s workshop functioned in this period remains amatter of dispute.[14] During the years that Rembrandt oversaw Uylenburgh’s studio, it
focused on the production of portraits, and Rembrandt occasionally enlisted somelevel of assistance because of the high demand. In keeping with the practices ofDutch and Flemish workshops, assistants familiar with Rembrandt’s manner ofworking would have contributed to elements such as the sitter’s costume or hands.[15]Nevertheless, little is known about those who assisted Rembrandt with his portrait
commissions. Beyond the portrait painter Dirk Santvoort (1610/11–80), and Isaac de
Jouderville (ca. 1612–48), a pupil of Rembrandt’s in Leiden who likely accompanied
the master when he moved to Amsterdam, no other names have been proposed.[16]S.A.C. Dudok van Heel has recently argued that “there was only one master painter[Rembrandt] working in the [Uylenburgh] studio,” and “fifty years of Rembrandt
research has not revealed any new names of possible Uylenburgh employees. . . . Thus
there is no ‘Circle of Rembrandt.’”[17]The evolving views on Rembrandt’s workshop practice have prompted renewedreflections on a number of portraits from the early 1630s, as well as a less narrowly
defined idea of Rembrandt’s manner of working.[18] Although the reservations
expressed by the RRP about the attribution of Portrait of a Young Woman to
Rembrandt have not been further discussed in the literature, when the painting was
included in the Young Rembrandt exhibition in 2019, it was once again fully
attributed to Rembrandt.[19] Indeed, since 1986, a number of scholars, including Ernst
van de Wetering, one of the authors of the RRP’s commentary on this painting, havedeveloped a more nuanced perspective on Rembrandt’s approach to portraiture in thisperiod, particularly with his depiction of female sitters.[20] They have cited various
factors that contributed to a portrait’s handling and character, including the master’s
relationship to his sitters and their personalities, backgrounds, and gender. Other
intangibles, such as the speed in which the commissions were executed, even withpendant portraits, likewise need to be considered.[21]Portrait of a Young Woman should be understood within this framework.
Rembrandt’s smooth handling of his sitter complements her quietly confident
demeanor, one that may have been impacted by the formality of the commission.[22]At a point when he was just starting out in Amsterdam, Rembrandt preferred a more
restrained approach in his depiction of young women, often in contrast to the broader
execution that characterizes their male counterparts.[23] This approach is evident inPortrait of a Woman in Braunschweig (fig 3), whose attribution was also questionedby the RRP in 1986. Reattributing the portrait to Rembrandt in 2014, Ernst van deWetering wrote that “the highly detailed and smooth execution” of the woman’s
portrait had previously been seen as “incompatible with the idea of Rembrandt’s
manner of painting to which the RRP was [then] committed.”[24] Whether© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Rembrandt’s approach in these female portraits can be explained by his reticence tointroduce too much personality in his sitters, or an effort to meet the needs of a newclientele, his subtle manner of painting in The Leiden Collection’s Portrait of a Young
Woman captures the sitter’s sensitive and curious nature with great assurance.[25] Thisapproach, together with the pictorial—and somewhat experimental—treatment of thelace, makes this portrait a compelling example of Rembrandt’s entrée onto the
Amsterdam market.[26]One unresolved question is whether Portrait of a Young Woman had a male pendant.
In 1930, Wilhelm Valentiner suggested that this work may have served as thecompanion to Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat, now in The Leiden Collection (fig 5).
[27]

Although the sitters in these two paintings, which have the same date and nearly

identical dimensions, turn toward one another, this proposal is unlikely. As theauthors of the Corpus first pointed out, the differences in the original shape of thepanels (Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat was only later cut into an oval), as well thestructure of the wood used, make the pairing unlikely.[28] Moreover, the notabledifferences in the sitters’ appearance and style of dress argue against it: the hairstyleand the red braided doublet worn by the male sitter indicate that he was either aforeigner or a member of the military, an unlikely match for the conservatively
dressed Dutch sitter in Portrait of a Young Woman.[29]Nevertheless, the two portraits have crossed paths at various points in their histories.
In 1930, when held in separate American private collections, both were exhibited at
The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Master Paintings by Rembrandt at the Detroit
Institute of Arts, which was one of the first Rembrandt exhibitions in the UnitedStates.[30] The paintings later appeared in the same auction at Sotheby’s in 1998, after
which Portrait of a Young Woman entered the collection of Ambassador J. William
Middendorf II.[31] A former United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (1969–73)
and Secretary of the Navy (1974–77), Middendorf has been a passionate collector of
Dutch and Flemish paintings, including several Rembrandts, for more than five
decades.[32] In honor of his many inspiring contributions to both the nation and thehistory of collecting, the present collector has aptly named Portrait of a Young
Woman the “Middendorf Rembrandt.” The painting’s acquisition by The Leiden
Collection thus not only deepens its representation of this dynamic decade ofRembrandt’s career in Amsterdam, but it also reflects a rich tradition of collecting
Dutch art.[33]- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2021; revised 2022
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Endnotes
1. A similar effect of translucency in the lace coif appears in the Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq inFrankfurt (fig. 2), as well as in the Portrait of a Woman in Braunschweig (fig. 3), both dated 1633 anddiscussed below. In these works, Rembrandt used long gray brushstrokes to make the back of the sitter’s
collar and cap visible through the fabric. In Portrait of a Young Woman, these areas of gray are
diminished on the right side, leaving the back of the woman’s head and collar overexposed. This is likely
the result of abrasion from an earlier restoration, but further technical examination is needed toinvestigate this condition. The left side of the cap is more indicative of the original appearance of thecap.
2. For Rembrandt’s approach to depicting lace in the early 1630s, see Petria Noble et al., “An Exceptional
Commission: Conservation History, Treatment and Painting Technique of Rembrandt’s Marten andOopjen, 1634,” Rijksmuseum Bulletin 66, no. 4 (2018): 334–37. For further discussion on Rembrandt’s
treatment of lace in The Leiden Collection, see the entries on Portrait of Petronella Buys by Lara YeagerCrasselt and Portrait of Antonie Coopal by David de Witt and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. in this catalogue.
3. The painting is signed and dated “Rembrant f. / 1633.” In most published references, it is incorrectly
noted as “Rembrandt.” I would like to thank Michiel Franken for pointing out the distinctions in thisspelling. The appearance of the signature and date is consistent with Rembrandt’s manner of signing his
works in 1633, but the authors of the Corpus have expressed doubt about the authenticity of thesignature, which they describe as “clumsily shaped, and quite different from those of authentic
Rembrandt signatures.” They do, however, believe that the signature is contemporary to the painting andwas likely added with Rembrandt’s approval by a member of the studio. See Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus
of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The
Hague, 1986), 826. Further technical investigation of the signature is forthcoming.
Based on the sapwood statistic for Eastern Europe, dendrochronological examination by Peter Klein in2013 has shown that the earliest possible felling date for this panel is 1628. With a minimum seasoning
time of two years, the earliest date for the execution of this portrait is 1630, thus in keeping with theexecution date of 1633, as indicated in the signature. See Peter Klein’s report kept in the archives of The
Leiden Collection. In the early literature on the painting, a date of 1631 is given (as well as an age ofabout thirty-three years for the sitter) without further explanation. Wilhelm Valentiner was the firstscholar to provide the date of 1633. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Wiedergefundene Gemälde(1910–1920) in 120 Abbildungen, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtgaben (Stuttgart, 1921), 27: nos. 31, 28.
4. See Jasper Hillegers, “Rembrandt and the Amsterdam Art Market,” in Rembrandt in Amsterdam:
Creativity and Competition, ed. Stephanie S. Dickey and Jochen Sander (Exh. cat. Ottawa, National
Gallery of Canada; Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum) (New Haven, 2020), 99–102; and, more
broadly, Norbert Middelkoop, ed., Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture, 1590–1670 (Exh. cat.
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza) (Madrid, 2020).
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5. See Jaap van der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business: Production and Trade between 1625 and
1655,” in Uylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso
Lammertse and Jaap van der Veen (Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt
House Museum) (Zwolle, 2006), 117–205, especially 126–60. For an excellent overview of portrait
painting in Amsterdam before Rembrandt’s arrival, as well as during the early 1630s, see the recent
contributions by S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt’s Surprising Start as a Portrait Painter: Hendrick
Uylenburgh’s Role in the Production of Portraits in Amsterdam,” in Rembrandt and Amsterdam
Portraiture, 1590–1670, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Madrid, Museo Nacional ThyssenBornemisza) (Madrid, 2020), 129–51; Stephanie Dickey, “Portraits of Prosperity,” in Rembrandt inAmsterdam: Creativity and Competition, ed. Stephanie S. Dickey and Jochen Sander (Exh. cat. Ottawa,
National Gallery of Canada; Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum) (New Haven, 2020), 153–87. Dudok
van Heel argues that Rembrandt had his start in portraiture not only in Amsterdam, but also throughcommissions in The Hague, Leiden, and Rotterdam in the first half of the 1630s.
6. Many of Rembrandt’s clients came from Uylenburgh’s network. S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt’s
Surprising Start as a Portrait Painter: Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Role in the Production of Portraits in
Amsterdam,” in Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture, 1590–1670, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat.
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza) (Madrid, 2020), 60–61; and Jaap van der Veen,“Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business: Production and Trade between 1625 and 1655,” in Uylenburgh &Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso Lammertse and Jaap van
der Veen (Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt House Museum)(Zwolle, 2006), 127–29.
7. For the Frankfurt and Braunschweig portraits, see Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings,
vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), A 82, C 71.
In Corpus VI, Ernst van de Wetering reattributed the Braunschweig portrait to Rembrandt. See Ernst van
de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6, Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete
Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 524, under nos. 87a and87b. The attribution of the Braunschweig portrait to Rembrandt is upheld most recently in Volker
Manuth, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie van Leeuwen, Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings (Cologne,2019), no. 228.
8. John Smith, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters(London, 1836), 7: 160, no. 496. The painting appears to have passed through the hands of John Smith’sson, John Mountjoy Smith (1805–69), following the 1864 sale of the collection of Thomas Turton,
Bishop of Ely. See Provenance.
9. “Mit einem Schlage erscheinen die tüchtigen Leistungen der ältern Amsterdamer Bildnismaler, etwa
eines Nicolaes Elias, befangen und unfrei neben der anspruchslosen Selbstverständlichkeit, mit derRembrandt dieses Mädchen porträtierte, als ob es keine Schwierigkeiten der Darstellung zu überwinden
gäbe.” Otto Hirschmann, “Die Sammlung A. Preyer in Haag,” Der Cicerone 15 (February 1923): 126.
Hirschmann knew the painting when it was with the art dealer A. Preyer in The Hague.
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10. See Provenance. Brown’s acquisition of the painting was reported in the Evening Star, Washington, DC(26 September 1925), Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York (26 September 1925), Morning Call, Allentown,
Pennsylvania (27 September 1925), Philadelphia Inquirer (26 September 1925), and Art News 24 (10October 1925): pl. 1. I am grateful to April Smitley from the Art Reference Library at the North
Carolina Museum of Art for her kind assistance in locating these newspaper articles.
11. The authors of the second volume of the Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Josua Bruyn, Bob Haak, andErnst van de Wetering, do not suggest an identity for the assistant who may have executed this work,
which is consistent with their approach at that time. They raise similar criticisms for a number ofRembrandt’s female portraits from this early period. See Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), C
81.
12. The authors also observed a lack of “pictorial liveliness and the resulting suggestion of plasticity anddepth that is typical of Rembrandt’s portrait heads.” Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt
Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986),
827.
13. Again somewhat inconsistently, however, in their concluding summary to the entry on this work theauthors state that “there is no doubt that it was produced in Rembrandt’s workshop in or about 1633.”
Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 827.
14. See Ernst van de Wetering, “Problems of Apprenticeship and Studio Collaboration,” in Josua Bruyn etal., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
Project (The Hague, 1986), 45–90; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Issues of Attribution in the Rembrandt
Workshop,” in Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, NGA Online Editions (Washington, D.C.,
2014),

http://purl.org/nga/collection/catalogue/17th-century-dutch-paintings;

WalterLiedtke,“Rembrandt’s Workshop Revisited,” Oud Holland 117 (2004): 48–73; Jaap van der Veen, “Hendrick
Uylenburgh’s Art Business: Production and Trade between 1625 and 1655,” in Uylenburgh & Son: Art
and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso Lammertse and Jaap van der Veen
(Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt House Museum) (Zwolle, 2006),
117–205.
15. This kind of collaboration with workshop assistants was probably a function of price as well as
time—that is, an autograph work by a master’s hand would typically cost more than a work made withassistance. Michiel van Miereveld (1566–1641) in Delft had a large-scale workshop to keep up with thehigh number of portraits he produced in the early seventeenth century, as did one of Rembrandt’s
predecessors in Amsterdam, the painter Cornelis van der Voort (1576–1624). In Antwerp, in theSouthern Netherlands, Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) also
operated workshops with assistants. There is evidence to indicate that Rembrandt worked this way on atleast one occasion: in his 1633 Portrait of Johannes Uyttenbogaert, Rembrandt employed an assistant in
the execution of the sitter’s hands. See Wouter Th. Koek and Guido M.C. Jansen, Rembrandt in a New© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Young Woman (“The Middendorf Rembrandt”)
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Light: Presentation of Seven Restored Paintings by Rembrandt (Amsterdam, 1993); Jaap van der Veen,“Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business: Production and Trade between 1625 and 1655,” in Uylenburgh &Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso Lammertse and Jaap van
der Veen (Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt House Museum)(Zwolle, 2006), 136. For a discussion of the possibilities of this kind of workshop collaboration in The
Leiden Collection, see the entry on Portrait of Antonie Coopal by David de Witt and Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. in this catalogue.
16. For the proposal that Jouderville accompanied Rembrandt to Amsterdam in the early 1630s, see Jaap
van der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business: Production and Trade between 1625 and 1655,” inUylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso Lammertse
and Jaap van der Veen (Exh. cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt House
Museum) (Zwolle, 2006), 136, 183.
Two other fully trained artists who worked in Rembrandt’s orbit in the first half of the 1630s were Jacob
Backer (1609–51) and Govaert Flinck (1615–60), who had each come from the workshop of Lambert
Jacobsz (ca. 1598–1636) in Leeuwarden. Backer probably arrived in Amsterdam around 1633. Flinck,
who arrived around 1634, likely collaborated with Rembrandt on portrait commissions in this period.
Upon Rembrandt’s departure from Uylenburgh’s workshop in 1635, Flinck assumed the position ofoverseeing the studio. The broader handling characteristic of Backer’s and Flinck’s styles makes theirinvolvement in this portrait unlikely, however.
17. Dudok van Heel makes an exception for Jouderville, who, he believes, did assist Rembrandt inAmsterdam. See S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt’s Surprising Start as a Portrait Painter: Hendrick
Uylenburgh’s Role in the Production of Portraits in Amsterdam,” in Rembrandt and Amsterdam
Portraiture, 1590–1670, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat. Madrid, Museo Nacional ThyssenBornemisza) (Madrid, 2020), 142. Dudok van Heel has proposed elsewhere, however, that Santvoort
also served as one of the assistants in Uylenburgh’s workshop: S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt andFrans Hals painting in the workshop of Hendrick Uylenburgh,” in Rembrandt and his Circle: Insights andDiscoveries, ed. Stephanie S. Dickey (Amsterdam, 2017), 36.
18. For example, see Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6, Rembrandt’s
Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht,2014), nos. 87a and 87b, 118b. For an overview of the current attributions on Rembrandt’s portraits
from the early 1630s, see Volker Manuth, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie van Leeuwen, Rembrandt: The
Complete Paintings (Cologne, 2019), 651–64.
19. Following the 1986 publication, most scholars similarly rejected the attribution to Rembrandt, with the
exception of Leonard Slatkes, Rembrandt: Catalogo complete dei dipinti (Florence, 1992), 283, no. 184.
The portrait was mentioned briefly in Jaap van der Veen, “Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Art Business:
Production and Trade between 1625 and 1655,” in Uylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from
Rembrandt to De Lairesse, 1625–1675, ed. Friso Lammertse and Jaap van der Veen (Exh. cat. London,
Dulwich Picture Gallery; Amsterdam, Rembrandt House Museum) (Zwolle, 2006), 145, 147, fig. 90,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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but only to the extent of repeating the view of the RRP. The painting’s exhibition in 2019 was the firsttime that it was shown to the public in nearly eighty years. Christopher Brown, An Van Camp, andChristiaan Vogelaar, eds., Young Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal; Oxford,
Ashmolean Museum) (Oxford, 2019), 280, no. 146.
20. See discussion below, and Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
6, Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A Complete Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 524, under nos. 87a and 87b; Volker Manuth, Marieke de Winkel, and Rudie
van Leeuwen, Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings (Cologne, 2019), 84, nos. 223, 224, 228, and the entry
on Portrait of Petronella Buys by Lara Yeager-Crasselt in this catalogue. Van de Wetering did notinclude Portrait of a Young Woman in volume 6 of the Corpus, nor, interestingly, Portrait of Maertgenvan Bilderbeecq (fig 2).
21. This point is evident in the pendant portraits of Petronella Buys and Philips Lucasz, in which Rembrandt
painted Philips with quicker, short brushstrokes and Petronella with a more subtle and refinedtechnique. Other examples are the portraits of Dirck Jansz Pesser (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)and Haesje van Cleyburg (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), from 1634. See further discussion in the entries
for the Portrait of Petronella Buys by Lara Yeager Crasselt and Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat by
Volker Manuth in this catalogue.
22. Some of the differences in execution between Portrait of a Young Woman and the Portrait of Maertgenvan Bilderbeecq (fig 2) may be accounted for by Rembrandt’s personal relationship with the latter sitter.
Van Bilderbeecq also came from Leiden and was related to Rembrandt’s mother. The families were bothpart of the community of bakers and millers of the city. S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt’s
Surprising Start as a Portrait Painter: Hendrick Uylenburgh’s Role in the Production of Portraits in
Amsterdam,” in Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture, 1590–1670, ed. Norbert Middelkoop (Exh. cat.
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza) (Madrid, 2020), 140; Jasper Hillegers, “Rembrandt andthe Amsterdam Art Market,” in Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition, ed. Stephanie S.
Dickey and Jochen Sander (Exh. cat. Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada; Frankfurt am Main, Städel
Museum) (New Haven, 2020), 102.
23. See note 21. Other examples include Portrait of a Seated Young Woman, 1632 (Gemäldegalerie der
Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna), and Portrait of a Woman, 1634 (Speed Art Museum,Louisville).
24. Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6, Rembrandt’s Paintings Revisited: A
Complete Survey, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Dordrecht, 2014), 524, under nos.
87a and 87b.
25. I would like to thank Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for suggesting that Rembrandt may have been reticent in
his approach to his female sitters.
26. The close similarities in the costume elements, as well as the structure and execution of the collars in
Portrait of a Young Woman and Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq (fig 2) also support the attribution
to Rembrandt. It would have been contrary to the nature of workshop collaboration for Rembrandt to© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Young Woman (“The Middendorf Rembrandt”)
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have executed the collars, but not the heads and faces of his sitters. I would like to thank Stephanie
Dickey for her observations on the treatment of lace.
27. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Rediscovered Rembrandt Paintings,” Burlington Magazine 57 (1930): 265.
28. Portrait of a Young Woman consists of three planks of oak with a vertical grain; the panel has been
cradled. Personal correspondence between George Bisacca and Michael Heidelberg, recently accessed at
the RKD, has shown that the panel may have been cut down from a rectangle into an oval (Letter from
George Bisacca to Michael Heidelberg, 10 April 1998, Rembrandt Research Project Archives, RKD,The Hague). Bisacca, who examined the panel in 1998, indicated that it showed a remnant of theoriginal bevel at the bottom edge, which traces a horizontal demarcation. However, brushwork in theupper areas of the painting follows an oval shape and there is an indication of a painted oval border inthe upper right. Thus the panel may have been originally rectangular (or even possibly octagonal), but
the painted composition appears to have always been oval. This approach is consistent with otherpaintings by Rembrandt, including Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat. This information is supported by thetreatment report written by Michael Heidelberg, 22 May 1998, kept on file in the Rembrandt Research
Project Archives, RKD, The Hague. I would like to thank Caroline Van Cauwenberge for kindly
researching this correspondence (March 2022). Further technical investigation is needed to clarify thesequestions about the original shape of the panel.
Although it has previously been pointed out that the type of wood used for this work was different fromthat used for Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat, this observation seems to have been made in error; bothpanels are oak and derived from the Baltic/Polish region (see note 3 for further comments). It is also
important to note that the RRP’s questioning of the pendant relationship was related to their doubts, atthe time, regarding the female portrait’s attribution. See the discussion in the entry for Portrait of a Man
in a Red Coat, and Josua Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2, 1631–1634, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1986), 827; Ernst van de Wetering et al., A
Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4, Self-Portraits, ed. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research
Project (Dordrecht, 2005), Addendum IV 4, 645.
29. A more likely pendant for Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat is Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Woman in theMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston, whose French-style dress is more in keeping with the costume worn by
the male sitter. See the entry by Volker Manuth in this catalogue.
30. Wilhelm Valentiner, The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Rembrandt (Exh. cat.
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Art, 1930) (New York, 1930), nos. 15 and 23, respectively. For thesignificance of the Detroit exhibition in the context of Rembrandt scholarship, see Catherine B. Scallen,
Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship (Amsterdam, 20004), 310–13.
31. Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, nos. 31 and 18, respectively. Portrait of a Man in a Red
Coat entered several private collections before being acquired by The Leiden Collection in 2008. I
would like to express my gratitude to Ambassador John William Middendorf II and Frances Middendorf
for kindly sharing information about the painting with The Leiden Collection.
32. Middendorf’s long and distinguished career of public service has also included posts as United States© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Young Woman (“The Middendorf Rembrandt”)
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Ambassador to the European Union and Ambassador to the Organization of American States. Amongthe paintings by Rembrandt that he has owned in the past are Portrait of a Man Holding a Black Hat, ca.
1639/40 (Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles) and Juno, ca. 1660 (Armand Hammer Museum, Los
Angeles). In addition to his collecting, Middendorf is a well-regarded artist and composer.
33. Portrait of a Young Woman follows Gabriel Metsu’s Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a
Letter as the second painting in The Leiden Collection to have come from the collection of Ambassador
Middendorf.

Provenance
M. De la Hante Collection, Paris, by 1836.
[John Smith (1781–1855), London, until 1850 (to Thomas Turton for £150).]
Thomas Turton (1780–1864), Bishop of Ely (his sale, London, 14 April 1864, no. 28 [to John Mountjoy
Smith for 13 guineas, 13 shillings]).
[John Mountjoy Smith (1805–69), London (to Thomas Henry Allen Poynder).]
Thomas Henry Allen Poynder (1814–73), Hilmarton Manor, Wiltshire, by 1864; by descent to his
nephew, Sir John Poynder Dickson-Poynder (1866–1936), 1st Baron Islington, Hilmarton Manor,
Wiltshire.
[Abraham Preyer, Paris and The Hague, by 1921 (to John Levy Galleries).][1][John Levy Galleries, New York (to Frederick Brown for $100,000).]
Frederick Brown, New York, by 1925 until 1939.
Leo M. Flesh, Piqua, Ohio, by 1939.
[John Levy Galleries, New York, until 1942 (to Jacqueline W. Bernstein).]
Jacqueline W. Bernstein, New York; by descent (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, no. 31).
Ambassador John William Middendorf II (private sale, Christie’s, New York, 2021).[2]From whom acquired by present owner in 2021.

Provenance Notes

1. Jan Steen’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia, now in The Leiden Collection, was also formerly with the art dealer
Abraham Preyer.
2. Gabriel Metsu’s Young Woman Seated in an Interior, Reading a Letter, now in The Leiden Collection,
was also formerly in the collection of Ambassador John William Middendorf II.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Art, “The Thirteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by
Rembrandt,” 2–31 May 1930, no. 15 [lent by Frederick Brown].
San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts, “Golden Gate International Exposition,” 1939–40, 15, no. 195 [lentby Leo M. Flesh].
Amsterdam, Rembrandthuis, “Rembrandt en Uylenburgh, handel in Amsterdam,” 16 September–10
December 2006 [lent by Ambassador John William Middendorf II].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Young Rembrandt,” 2 November 2019–9 February 2020; Oxford,
Ashmolean Museum, 27 February 2020–1 November 2020, no. 146 [lent by Ambassador John William
Middendorf II].

References
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© 2024 The Leiden Collection