Dutch School, early 18th century
The Penitent Magdalene
Oil on wood panel

Unsigned. 11 x 9 inches (28 x 23 cm), the frame 18 x 16 inches (46 x 41 cm). Fluted gilt frame. Paint losses and a small split at the upper right.

The open book is the brightest thing on the panel. Its pages catch more light than her face or the sky beyond the rock, and the rest of the picture sinks into brown around it. She sits half length at the mouth of a cave, her head propped on her right hand and her eyes turned up toward the light, her loose reddish fair hair falling over the shoulder and down the back of a white chemise.

Her other hand rests on a skull beside the book, the fingers spread over the crown. To the right the rock opens onto trees and a pale sky, painted thinly in green and blue.