Housed in Buckingham Palace, London, this 1641 canvas was completed with a companion portrait of the sitter’s husband, Nicolaes van Bembeeck (1596-1661), a wool merchant, who had married Agatha Bas (1611-58) in 1638. The couple lived in the Sint Anthoniesbreestraat, where Rembrandt also lived from 1631. In the canvas, the artist introduces a new compositional device, where the figure is posed within a painted ebony frame, blurring the boundaries between the imaginary space within the composition and the outer real world. The impression of direct contact with the sitter is achieved partly through the gesture of the hand resting against the frame and by the depiction of a fan projecting over the edge towards the viewer’s space. However, an earlier reduction in the size of the canvas has considerably reduced the effect of these devices. The painting exhibits different levels of finish, with fine hairs at the edge of Bas’ hairline, through curling lines incised into the paint with the end of the brush, whilst in contrast the depiction of her skin and eyes is remarkably subtle and delicate.
There are five paintings by Rembrandt in the British Royal Collection, the earliest being The Artist’s Mother, which was presented to Charles I before 1633 and was thus one of the first works by Rembrandt to reach England. Of the three Rembrandts collected by George IV, The Shipbuilder and his Wife (Portrait of Jan Rijcksen and his Wife, Griet Jans), purchased for 5,000 guineas in 1811, was perhaps his most famous single acquisition. The Portrait of Agatha Bas was imported into England by Nieuwenhuys and offered at Christie’s, London, on 29 June 1814. It was later bought by Lord Yarmouth for George IV for a total of £74 10s and has remained in the Royal Collection in Buckingham Palace ever since. The companion piece is housed in Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.