Portrait of Margaretha de Geer

What you see

Margaretha de Geer sits almost facing us, in a black dress with wide sleeves and a dark headdress that frames her forehead. Her face, grave and composed, rests just above the white collar, which spans the full width of her shoulders. At lower left, one hand grips a white handkerchief; on the right, the other rests on the arm of her chair.

The light falls on three areas: the face, the collar and the hands with their white cuffs; everything else is black and brown. The skin calmly records wrinkles, heavy eyelids and the veins on her hands. Keep an eye out for the crumpled handkerchief, its ends trailing toward the bottom edge, and the small peak of the headdress above her brow.