Portrait of Magdalena de Cuyper

Unknown artist

Best known as a history-painter, Jordaens was an also accomplished portraitist. This sensitive study of old-age forms a trio with portraits of the sitter’s son, a prominent Antwerp merchant, and his wife. The tulip, a symbol of transience, alludes to her widowhood as does her black cap. She is exhibited on her own while her son’s portrait is on loan to the Mauritshuis in The Hague.