Wilhelmina Hillegonda Schuyt 1757

This is a pastel portrait of Wilhelmina Hillegonda Schuyt made around 1757 by Jean-Étienne Liotard. Liotard was a Genevan painter who traveled extensively, catering to a wealthy clientele across Europe and the Ottoman Empire. This work reflects a moment when the social rituals of aristocratic portraiture were solidifying into a kind of public performance. The cool and precise rendering of Wilhelmina’s fashionable dress and powdered wig presents an ideal of feminine beauty and status. The Rijksmuseum’s records tell us that Wilhelmina was the wife of a Counselor at the Court of Holland. But it takes historical research to tell us how art like this helped to reproduce class hierarchies of the Dutch Republic and how it solidified the power of its ruling elite. By studying fashion, popular imagery, and social histories, we can understand the ways that art both reflected and shaped the society in which it was made.