Young woman warming her hands over a brazier

Cesar Boëtius van Everdingen, ca. 1650 [Rijksmuseum Amsterdam]

A young woman is warming herself by a brazier, a pot containing glowing coals. Her dress forms a screen above the fire trapping and spreading the heat. She is clearly engrossed in what she is doing and her eyes are cast downwards. The painter, Caesar van Everdingen, probably did not intend a portrait of a particular person in this picture. In this work, painted around 1650, he has represented an idea: winter. The woman is a personification of winter. The artist has placed his monogram at the bottom, in the middle of the table's edge.