It shows a woman holding a fan, pendant to Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair.

This half of the pair came into the collection via the Helen Swift Neilson bequest in 1945.

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1914, who wrote; "881.

"[2] The painting was included in most Rembrandt catalogs of the 20th-century, and the Rembrandt Research Project agrees with Hofstede de Groot's pairing of this painting with the Taft Museum's portrait.

According to Walter Liedtke, the features of this woman closely resemble another portrait in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.