Shown half-length in left profile, the young woman wears a white chemise under a blue-green dress fastened to the neck, while an orange, fur-trimmed mantle falls over her right shoulder. Her auburn-brown hair is gathered into a bun beneath a white cap, a pendant pearl visible among the strands framing her ear. Turning her head three-quarters toward the viewer, she meets the spectator’s gaze while holding a long white clay Gouda pipe in her right hand. The association of a female figure with smoking is particularly striking, as such imagery was uncommon in painting of the period. In Northern painting, the theme of smoking developed primarily in conjunction with scenes of drinkers and tavern life. Dutch moralists of the period frequently condemned the habit as a sign of excess and moral decline, in contrast to the ideals of temperance and virtue.

Suspended between portraiture and genre, virtue and seduction, the figure exemplifies Bijlert’s capacity to infuse familiar motifs with psychological nuance, leaving the viewer uncertain whether to read the scene as a moral warning, playful provocation, or both at once.