Portrait of a 38 Year Old Widow
- Date
- 1644
- Object type
- painting
- Technique
- oil
- Material
- wood
- Dimensions
- 69,0 x 58,7 cm
- Location
- The Palace on the Isle - Hallway, 1st floor
- Marks and inscriptions
- the barely legible inscription AETATIS | SUAE. 38 | 1644. on right, at height of the sitter’s jawline red number 1374 of the Stanisław August collection, bottom right
- Place of Origin
- Haarlem (Netherlands)
- Owner
- National Museum in Warsaw
- Acquisition name
- deposit; inv. no. M.Ob.528
- Museum number
- Dep 928
In the catalogues of the Stanisław August collection, the portrait was recorded without naming the artist … .
… In 2012 the portrait was published by Kerry Barrett in the catalogue raisonné of Soutman’s works as being among the 20 paintings of unquestioned attribution. …
An integral part of Soutman’s painterly technique was the use of contour and distinct, rather than soft modelling—thickly applied paint layers in the facial part, white hatching in the patches of colour in the costumes, without attempting to blend the various elements into a seamless whole, thus giving his compositions a certain dynamism (K. Barrett, Pieter Soutman. Life and Oeuvre, Amsterdam 2012, pp. 32–33). The output of the two artistic milieux in which he was apprenticed and worked had an influence on Soutman’s style: Dutch Haarlem and Flemish Antwerp. Their combination resulted in Soutman’s individual style of portraiture. His sketchy, free and spontaneous brushstrokes, borrowed from Frans Hals, were combined with the arrangement of his compositions borrowed from the Flemish: elegant settings and costumes, which lent an air of nobility to the portraits of his sitters, who came from the upper echelons of the rich Catholic bourgeoisie (K. Barrett, Pieter Soutman: Life and Oeuvre, Amsterdam 2012, pp. 66–67). [D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 98, pp. 361–363.]