Portrait of Christina Johanna Backer (1688-1737)

Boonen's Portrait of Christina Johanna Backer (1688–1737) from 1715 depicts a young Dutch woman of the Amsterdam bourgeoisie at about twenty-seven years of age. Christina Backer was likely a member of the prosperous Amsterdam merchant or regent class; her portrait commission from Boonen, who was one of the more sought-after Dutch portraitists of the early eighteenth century, indicates a family of means and social ambition. Female portraits by Boonen combine the Dutch tradition of sober characterization with a growing awareness of the French fashionable mode that was influencing Dutch portraiture in this period.

Boonen renders Christina Backer with his characteristic warm, direct approach to female portraiture — smooth modeling of the face, careful attention to lace cap and dark silk dress, and a direct gaze that conveys individual personality within the genre's formal constraints. The warm background tones create an intimate rather than imposing atmosphere.