Head of a Woman - a painting by Michael Sweerts

Dear Atria, I am not an art lover nor I know anything about art, but Anna drags me to various museums, so I had an opportunity to see (well... sometimes also admire) artworks in many famous museums. I remember that you used to like drawing, so I thought you may be actually interested in art hence sharing this painting with you.
The picture on the right was taken at Getty Center (Museum) in Los Angeles. It is a picture of a painting by Michael Sweerts, a Flemish artist born in 1618. The title of this painting is 'Head of a Woman'. In contrast to many other paintings in the Getty Center this one is of a simple, working-class woman, prematurely aged by hard work and her rough life. A woman, her thin hair tightly wrapped in a white scarf, looks out at the viewer with teary eyes and a toothless smile. The painter treated his subject with compassion, vividly capturing the woman's inner beauty while accurately recording her external appearance: the loose skin, thinning hair, and wart on the left side of her face.

I like this painting, somehow I also like the woman in the painting - she is just a normal, hard-working lady, aged prematurely, but emanating some sort of inner beauty and peace. The painting is very realistic and emotional. I also like the brushwork in this painting, striking contrast between light and shadows making it three-dimensional. It's an realistic portrait and I have to say that I much prefer realistic artwork rather than an abstract. I don't understand abstraction and all this modern art. You may remember that I described at some point my visit to TATE Modern Art Gallery in London and I didn't like it at all. Painting at Getty Museum were mainly by the European old masters and some of them were beautiful and enjoyable even to such an art ignorant as me. 
What do you think about this painting Atria? Do you like it? Does it awake any feelings in you? Are you interested in art at all? What do you think about the modern art?
I hope some day I will find answers to all these questions...