Portret van jonkvrouwe Maria Francisca Louisa Dommer van Poldersveldt (Ubbergen 1848 - 1925 ’s-Hertogenbosch)

This companion portrait to the van Rijckevorsel painting depicts Jonkvrouwe Maria Francisca Louisa Dommer van Poldersveldt, also dated 1888 and also executed on panel. The two portraits were commissioned together as paired pendants, a traditional format for spousal or family portraiture with deep roots in Netherlandish art going back to Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling. Khnopff's willingness to work within this conventional format while subtly inflecting it with his own aesthetic sensibility demonstrates his ability to satisfy clients operating within conservative traditions. The Rijksmuseum holds both portraits as a unit, recognising their original function as a pair. By 1888 Khnopff was the most sought-after portrait painter among the Catholic bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Belgium and the southern Netherlands, and commissions like these funded his more experimental Symbolist work. The panel medium — unusual in late nineteenth-century portrait painting, which almost universally preferred canvas — may have been chosen to evoke the precision of the early Netherlandish tradition, appropriate for a sitter of Dutch noble lineage.

As a pendant to the male portrait, the composition mirrors its counterpart in scale, medium, and tonal approach. Panel support is exploited for its smooth ground, allowing fine detail in the face and hands. The treatment of lace, fabric, and jewellery demonstrates Khnopff's facility with the conventions of haute-bourgeois portraiture.