Several oval portraits of women of 17th-century Amsterdam have survived. Some are pendants and others are individual portraits. This painting has been attributed to Rembrandt since the 19th-century, but the name of the sitter is unknown. This painting came into the collection via the Benjamin Altman bequest.
867. A WOMAN WITH A WHITE CAP AND RUFF. B.-HdG. 561. Half-length, without hands; life size. She is seen almost in full face, looking at the viewer. She is in black. Dark background. The light falls from the left at top.
Signed to the left above the shoulder, "Rembrandt f. 1633"; oval oak panel, 26 1/2 inches by 20 inches. In the collection of Prince Radziwill, at the castle of Nieswiz, Lithuania. Sale. Lachnicki, Paris, June 15, 1867. In the Lachnicki collection, Warsaw. In the possession of F. Kleinberger, Paris.
In the collection of B. Altman, New York; bequeathed as a whole in 1913 to the Museum. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York.[2]
Other notable oval portraits of women of North Holland from the same period are:
