Portrait of a Young Lady

c. 1620

Paulus Moreelse (Dutch, 1571–1638)

The youthful subject of this portrait is bedecked in jewelry that features gold, gems, and pearls, much of which would have been imported from the Americas and the South Pacific in the early 17th century. Paulus Moreelse, who worked in Utrecht, specialized in court portraiture. The exceptional richness of this unknown woman’s dress—the intricate openwork of her lace collar and the spectacular oversized brooch—suggests that she was part of the court of the House of Orange-Nassau and thus belonged to the country’s elite.

Status: On View, Gallery 213
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Paulus Moreelse
Title: Portrait of a Young Lady
Place: Holland (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1615–1625
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 71.5 × 57.4 cm (28 1/8 × 22 5/8 in.); Framed: 88.3 × 74.3 × 8.9 cm (34 3/4 × 29 1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Max and Leola Epstein Collection
Reference Number: 1954.292
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/80539/manifest.json

“Versteigerung der Sammlung Arnold van Buuren bei A. Mak,” Cicerone, Versteigerungsergebnisse 17 (1925), p. 131, no. 92.
Max Epstein, Old Masters in the Collection of Max Epstein (Chicago, 1928), no pag, ill.
Caroline Henriette de Jonge, Paulus Moreelse: portet- en genreschilder te Utrecht, 1671–1638 (Assen, 1938), p. 98, no. 119, pl. 40.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 339.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), pp. 257, 284, ill; rev. eds. (London, 1977); (London, 1987).
Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Washington, D.C., 1986), p. 51.
Ian Wardropper, “Between Art and Nature: Jewelry in the Renaissance,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 25, 2, (2000), p. 14, fig. 9.
Eric Domela Nieuwenhuid Nyegaard, “Paulus Moreelse,” vol. 2 (PhD diss., Universiteit Leiden, 2001), p. 405–06, no. SAP46.
Karina H. Corrigan, Jan van Campen and Femke Diercks, eds., Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 184–87 cat. 50b, as Portrait of a Young Woman.

University of Chicago, Max Epstein Memorial Exhibition, May 3–14, 1955, no. 11.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, October 15, 2015-January 18, 2016, cat. 50b as Portrait of a Young Woman; Salem, MA, Peabody Essex Museum, February 27-June 5, 2016 (Salem only).

Arnold van Buuren, by 1925; his sale, Mak, Amsterdam, May 26, 1925, lot 92, for 2,000 guilders [price according to Cicerone 1925]. Max Epstein (died 1954), Chicago, by 1928 [see Epstein 1928]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1954.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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