A Woman bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?)
- Artist: Rembrandt
- Date: 1654
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Woman bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?) by Rembrandt, painted in 1654. Here you see a woman lifting her shift and looking down with a little smile of pleasure at the cool water rippling against her sturdy legs.
We don't know who this woman is for certain, but it's been suggested that she may be Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's lover, who came into his household to care for his son after his first wife died. She endured public humiliation in the year this picture was painted because she became pregnant outside of marriage.
The painting has been interpreted as a possible study for a biblical heroine, but the plain shift the woman wears is quite ordinary and doesn't fit with that idea. The most likely possibility is that Rembrandt knew and loved this quiet, gently absorbed woman and shared her delight in an unguarded moment of pleasure in some anonymous Dutch stream.
Notice how Rembrandt's revolutionary technique allows us to sense not only the woman's emotions but also his own deep understanding of human feelings. This painting is a beautiful example of his skill at capturing the essence of everyday life with great emotion and subtlety.
See it in person
A Woman bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?) hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
