Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan
c. 1656/1658
Artist, Dutch, 1606 - 1669

There is little doubt that these two portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn (see also NGA 1942.9.67) were conceived as pendants, or companion pieces. In both, light illuminates the subjects from exactly the same angle. Unfortunately, the identity of the sitters remains a mystery. The man and woman interact with reserved yet poignant warmth; he gestures toward her while looking at the viewer, and she glances in his direction while holding her feather fan so that it inclines toward him. The woman’s hairstyle and costume, including the elegant yet restrained jewelry, are all datable to the 1650s. The translucent lace collar with the elaborate lower edge that covers her shoulders and continues horizontally across her body is of a type seen in a number of portraits from this period. Her plain white cuffs edged with lace are similar to those in Rembrandt’s painting of A Woman Holding a Pink dated 1656.
The early history of these paintings is shrouded in mystery, but by 1803 they had entered the collection of Prince Nicolai Yusupov (1751–1831) in Saint Petersburg. The first published descriptions of the pair, in 1864, already mention their "extraordinary energy," and the paintings made a tremendous impression at the great Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam in 1898. When Nicolai’s great-great-grandson, Prince Felix Yusupov (1887–1967), escaped Russia at the start of the Revolution in 1917, he brought the family jewels and these two Rembrandt paintings with him to London. Joseph E. Widener, the future benefactor of the National Gallery of Art, purchased the pair in 1921 when the Prince’s need for cash forced him to part with his family heirlooms.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 51
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas transferred to canvas
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 99.5 × 83 cm (39 3/16 × 32 11/16 in.)
framed: 132.08 × 115.25 × 13.97 cm (52 × 45 3/8 × 5 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1942.9.68
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly Gerard Hoet, Jr. [d. 1760], The Hague; possibly (sale, by Ottho Van Thol, Huibert Keetelaar, and Pierre Yver, The Hague, 25 August 1760, no. 50).[1] Prince Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov [1751-1831], Saint Petersburg and Moscow, by 1803;[2] by inheritance to his son, Prince Boris Nicolaiovich Yusupov [1794-1849], Moscow and Saint Petersburg; by inheritance to his son, Prince Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov [1827-1891], Saint Petersburg; by inheritance to his daughter, Princess Zinaida [Zenaida] Nikolaievna Yusupova [1861-1939], Saint Petersburg, Yalta, and London;[3] sold 1921 by her son and heir, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov [1887-1967],[4] to Joseph E. Widener; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase by funds of the Estate; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Gerard Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderijen..., 2 vols., The Hague, 1752, supplement by Pieter Terwesten, 1770, reprint ed. Soest, 1976, 3: 225, no. 50. The painting is listed as: "Een dito Vrouws-Pourtrait: de weergaa, door denzelven; van de eige groote."
[2] On the formation and history of the Yusupov collection see: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, A Scholar's Whim: Collection of Prince Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov, 2 vols., Moscow, 2001; Oleg Yakovlevich Neverov, Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia, New York and St. Petersburg, 2004: 89-102; State Hermitage Museum, Collectors in St. Petersburg, exh. cat., Hermitage Amsterdam, Zwolle, 2006: 23, 37-47. The German traveller Heinrich Christoph von Reimers (1768-1812) visited the collection in 1803 when it was housed in the family's palace on the Fontanka River in Saint Petersburg; his description of it, published in 1805, mentions the Gallery's painting, and its pendant NGA 1942.9.67. See Heinrich Christoph von Reimers, St. Petersburg, am Ende seines Ersten Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., Saint Petersburg, 1805: 2:373.
The spelling of the family name takes a variety of forms in the literature, reflecting different transliterations of the Cyrillic letters; among them are: Youssoupoff, Yussupov, Jussupov, and Yussupoff.
[3] The princess was the wife of Felix Felixovich, count Sumarokov-Elston (1856-1928), but she was the last surviving representative of the Yusupov family, and her husband was given the right to take his wife's surname and title. The Yusupov art collection, however, was hers, and, after the death in 1908 of her first son, Nicolai, the heir to it became her second son, Felix.
[4] The Yusupov collection, including the two portraits by Rembrandt, was moved in 1811 from Saint Petersburg to the family's Arkhangelskoye estate near Moscow, where it survived Napoleon's invasion of Russia during 1812, and was returned again to Saint Petersburg in 1837 to a new family palace on the Moika River. It remained there until sometime after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when much of the collection was seized by the Bolshevik government. The two Rembrandt paintings, however, were smuggled out of the Moika Palace.at some point prior to April 1919, when Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, his wife and parents, and other members of the Russian nobility left Yalta aboard a British ship. The paintings were taken by the prince to London, where negotiations for their sale began.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1898
Rembrandt: Schilderijen Bijeengebracht ter Gelegenheid van de Inhuldiging van Hare Majesteit Koningin Wilhelmina, Stedelij Museum, Amsterdam, 1898, no. 111.
1909
Les anciennes Ecoles de Peinture dans les Palais et Collections privées Russes, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1909, no. 282.
1969
Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Art [Commemorating the Tercentenary of the Artist's Death], National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no. 15, 25, repro.
1997
Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Dutch Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 1997, unnumbered brochure, repro.
2001
A Scholar's Whim: The Collection of Prince Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2001-2002, no. 121, repro. (shown only in Moscow).
2014
Rembrandt: The Late Works, National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2014-2015, no. 38, repro.
2019
Rembrandt y el retratro en Amsterdam, 1590-1670 [Rembrandt and Amsterdam portraiture, 1590-1670], Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2020, no. 85, repro.
Bibliography
1805
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1827
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1828
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1839
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1899
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1904
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1908
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1909
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1910
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1911
Fry, Roger. "Review and Notices." _The Burlington Magazine_19 (September 1911): 353-354.
1913
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1920
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1921
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1922
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1923
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1924
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1926
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1928
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1930
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1931
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1932
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1935
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1936
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1938
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1939
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1940
Widener, Peter A.B. Without Drums. New York, 1940: 60-64.
1942
National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 6, no. 664.
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. 2 vols. Translated by John Byam Shaw. Oxford, 1942: 1:23, no. 402; 2:repro.
1948
Rosenberg, Jakob. Rembrandt. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1948: 1:47-48; 2:fig. 72.
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1952
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1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 42, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 76.
1959
National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Reprint. Washington, DC, 1959: 49, repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25, color repro. 14 and on cover.
1962
Boeck, Wilhelm. Rembrandt. Stuttgart, 1962: 88.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 314, repro.
1964
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1965
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1966
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966: 26, no. 528, repro.
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1968
Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt Paintings. Amsterdam, 1968: color repro. 159, 450, 504, no. 412.
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1969
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1972
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1975
Wright, Christopher. Rembrandt and His Art. London and New York, 1975: 119-122, pl. 100.
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1977
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1979
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1982
Kitson, Michael. Rembrandt. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1982: no. 46, color repro.
1983
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1984
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1985
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 333, repro.
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1986
Guillaud, Jacqueline, and Maurice Guillaud. Rembrandt: das Bild des Menschen. Translated by Renate Renner. Stuttgart, 1986: 377, nos. 429-430, color repro.
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Tümpel, Christian. Rembrandt. Translated by Jacques and Jean Duvernet, Léon Karlson, and Patrick Grilli. Paris, 1986: repro. 329, 416, no. 250.
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1990
Liedtke, Walter A. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and their Ideals." In Great Dutch Paintings from America. Edited by Ben P.J. Broos. Exh. cat. Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The Hague and Zwolle, 1990: 43, 58 n. 132.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 199, color repro.
1995
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1996
Davis, Marian L. Visual Design in Dress. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996: 51, repro.
1997
Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art. New York, 1997: 182, fig.12-6.
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2000
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2001
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2002
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2004
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2006
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2011
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2014
Bikker, Jonathan, and Gregor J.M. Weber. Rembrandt: The Late Works. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. London, 2014: no. 38, repro. (detail) 98, repro. 103, 104-105, 296.
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Wikidata ID
Q20177427