Rembrandt, 'Portrait of Aechje Claesdr.', 1634

The optical illusion created by this painting, is a powerful one. Rembrandt has used contrasts between light and dark – for example, the blacks and whites of the sitter’s clothes, the highlights on her nose, the heavy shadow under her chin and the lighter, subtle greys of her headdress – to create a highly convincing three-dimensional effect. The old lady’s head seems to project forward out of the picture.

But it isn’t only the light effects which make the portrait seem so lifelike. Rembrandt has evoked the old lady’s blotched, blemished and sagging skin using different textures and thicknesses of paint. The furrows and shadows, the wrinkles and pudginess make her face seem almost tangible. He did this with a lively brush, applying the paint fluidly with short and curving strokes, as well as dabs and stipples.

The painting was made when Rembrandt was 28 years old, soon after he arrived in Amsterdam to set up his own studio. The oval shape was conventional in the city at that time, but the energetic and creative way of applying paint to the canvas represents a significant change in Rembrandt’s style from his more smoothly painted portraits of only a year or two earlier. He was clearly excited by the possibilities of his art and keen to experiment.

The painting does not record the sitter’s name, though it does give her age (83), as well as the date it was made (1634) and Rembrandt’s signature. Because of a misinterpreted label on a printed copy of the painting, it was thought for some time to be the artist’s grandmother, but about 25 years ago the sitter was identified as Aechje Claesdr. She was the widow of the Rotterdam brewer Jan Pesser (who died in 1619) and one of the leading figures among Rotterdam’s Remonstrant community.

The Remonstrants were Protestants, but their beliefs were slightly different from the Calvinist orthodoxy that dominated religion in Holland at the time. In 1619, they were banned from practising and many of their preachers were persecuted. Two of Aechje’s sons-in-law were Remonstrant preachers and she had to hide one of them in her house, but she managed to escape persecution herself. In 1634 Rembrandt came to Rotterdam to paint not only Aechje’s portrait but also those of her son Dirck and his wife Haesje van Cleyburgh. It may be that the famous preacher Johannes Wtenbogaert, whose portrait Rembrandt had painted in 1633 and who was living in Rotterdam at that time, introduced him to the family.

Aechje’s costume is not a fashionable one for 1634 – she is dressed in a style which was in vogue during her youth. Over a plain bodice she is wearing a sleeveless coat, or graingat, with large shoulder wings. Her pleated ruff is of moderate size, and she has tied an apron over her coat. Despite her wealth, her clothes are relatively modest – the only hint of luxury are the three tiny gold pins which hold her two-piece headdress in place.