Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan

Rembrandt van Rijn

National Gallery of Art

A woman with pale skin, wearing a black dress and holding a full, billowing white ostrich feather, is shown from the hips up against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. She has dark eyes, faint, arched brows, a slightly pink nose, and her pink lips are parted. Light falls from our left, creating shadows under the other cheekbone and along the side of her neck. Her shoulders are covered by a transparent, white, lace-edged wrap fastened with a bow. Her black dress also has wide, white cuffs, exposing a thick, possibly jeweled bracelet on each wrist. She wears two gold rings, one with a clear gem, perhaps a diamond, gold, dangling earrings, and a round pendant necklace. The lush white ostrich feather arches down from her right hand, held at her waist by her opposite hand, clasping that wrist.