Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image

Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image, also known in Dutch as Een Laggende Vrouw met een naakte Pourtraitje in de Hand, waar onder divisje staat ("A laughing woman holding a small picture of a nude in her hand, under which is a motto") or Jonge vrouw met een medaillon ("Young Woman with a Medallion"), is an oil painting on canvas by Gerard van Honthorst, created in 1625.

It depicts a prostitute dressed in gold and red clothing and pointing at a medallion she is holding up; the medallion depicts a seated naked woman, perhaps the same one, obscuring her face with her hand and captioned in Dutch "Wie kent mijn naers van Afteren" ("Who can recognize my backside from behind?").

She is likely using this medallion to advertise her services, as this was a typical practice of the sex industry in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War.

By 1864 it had been inherited by John Anthony Scott and his mother Caroline Colnaghi in London, and thence to Charles Roots in Hereford by 1922, who sold it that year to W. J. Davies.

Subsequent owners included Francis A. Drey, and by 1954 Adolph Loewi, Inc. of Los Angeles, from whom the Saint Louis Art Museum purchased it.

Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image (1625) by Gerard van Honthorst
A hand holds an erotic medallion, while the paired hand points to it
Detail