Painted in Maris’s Amsterdam studio around 1906, this portrait once circulated under vague or openly racist titles that treated its sitter as an anonymous type rather than an individual. Later research in the artist’s archive including letters, photographs, and notes revealed that Maris himself repeatedly wrote her name as “Isabella,” prompting the Rijksmuseum to restore that title and center her identity. A young Black girl of about twelve or thirteen sits turned slightly toward us in a deep, cushioned armchair with gilded armrests carved as goat heads. She has warm brown skin, dark eyes, and tight curls that spill from beneath an enormous white bonnet trimmed with soft pink-red flowers and gauzy ribbons. Her blue-green satin dress shimmers with quick, loose strokes, its bodice and sleeves edged in pale lace. She holds open a pale gold folding fan with her right hand as her left fingertips rest on the fan’s tassel. A slim bracelet circles left her wrist and a small ring glints on her finger. Behind her, a tall mirror catches the back of her bonnet and dress so we see her twice at once, while the surrounding studio of dark wood, patterned upholstery, and a glimpse of rug falls into a warm brown haze that makes her face, fan, and costume seem to almost glow. These days, Isabella is read as a carefully observed portrait of a particular Black girl, dressed in theatrical 19th-century European finery that both flatters and distances her. The fan, mirror, and stage-like chair remind us that she is posing in the world of a white Dutch portraitist celebrated for images of fashionable women and children, yet the painting also insists on her dignity and presence. In museum galleries and print reproductions, "Isabella" has become a touchstone in conversations about how Black girls were seen and often unnamed in European art, and how reclaiming a sitter’s name can shift an entire story.
"Isabella (Young Woman with a Fan)" by Simon Maris (Dutch) - Oil on canvas / 1906 - Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #BlueskyArt #SimonMaris #Maris #Rijksmuseum #DutchArt #portrait #DutchArtist #AmsterdamArt #ArtOfTheDay #PortraitofaGirl #arte #GenrePainting
