The prosperity and self-confidence of Dutch citizens in the seventeenth century gave rise to a tremendous demand for portraits. This vivid likeness shows an elegant lady, dressed in her finest—expensive lace, rich brocades, jeweled hair ornament and pearl necklace with jeweled pendant. Remarkable are the artist’s painstaking love of detail and his subtle range of grays and blacks, offset by dazzling red and gold. The sitter’s costume suggests it was painted in the early 1600s and an inscription on the right indicates that she was 25 years old. The work was attributed to the Dutch artist Paulus Moreelse, but more recently scholars have suggested Moreelse’s teacher, the noted portrait painter, Michiel van Mierevelt.