Near to the Wild Heart opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector compares her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man's head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his
Portrait of a 62-year-old Woman, possibly Aeltje Pietersdr Uylenburgh guide for the 21-year-old Saskia on her first visit to Amsterdam in the Spring of 1633. If indeed it is she, though its pendant is lost, an etching of her husband by Rembrandt still exists (the lost original painting would have been reversed so he faced her): Portrait of a 62-year-old Woman, possibly Aeltje Pietersdr Uylenburgh Portrait of a 62-year-old Woman, possibly Aeltje Pietersdr Uylenburgh is a 1632 portrait painting painted by Rembrandt. It shows an elderly woman with a small and sober millstone collar. It is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Several oval portraits