Portrait of a Woman, probably a Member of the Van Beresteyn Family

This portrait is a pendant to the Portrait of a Man (29.100.3). If the man is Cornelis van Beresteyn, then the woman must be his second wife, Corvina van Hofdyck (1602–1667). Her pose, including the precise positions of the hands (one holding an ostrich fan), repeats that of her mother-in-law as depicted by Jacob Willemsz. Delff in 1592. Rembrandt's pair portraits appear to have conformed in design to a dynastic ensemble of portraits that originally hung in the Van Beresteyn family home in Delft. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)