Portrait of Amalia von Solms-Braunfels

Against a golden-brown brocade cloth, a woman in a black dress sits in a chair and gazes out at the viewer. The large lace collar and cuffs, the pearl necklace at her chest, and the gold ribbons decorating her sleeves and waist stand out against the black clothing. It is an oil painting measuring 114.3 x 95.9 cm.

The sitter is Amalia, wife of Frederick Henry, Stadtholder of the Netherlands (stadtholder from 1625 until his death). While back in his native Antwerp, Van Dyck visited the Netherlands twice and painted several portraits of the couple. There are two pairs of portraits of the couple, and this is the wife's portrait from the finer pair, which originally belonged to the House of Orange-Nassau. Its companion portrait of her husband is in the Baltimore Museum of Art in the United States, and the other pair is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

According to the museum's commentary, Erik Larsen, in his catalogue raisonné, judges the wife's portrait to be of higher quality than the husband's. Van Dyck became court painter to James I of England at 21, and for six years from the age of 22 he worked in Italy, producing many portraits of nobles.