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| Portrait of a Woman |
Artist:Jan van Ravesteyn (Dutch, Culemborg (?) ca. 1572–1657 The Hague)
Date:1635
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:26 7/8 x 22 7/8 in. (68.3 x 58.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Henry Goldman, 1912
Accession Number:12.202
Catalogue Entry
The authorship of this comparatively late work by Ravesteyn, a skilled painter who worked exclusively as a portraitist, has never been questioned. The effect of the woman's stern expression and somewhat outdated millstone ruff is softened by her small lace collar and delicate lace cap, and perhaps as well by the artist's brushwork. Ravesteyn was usually more attentive than his contemporaries Michiel van Miereveld or Paulus Moreelse were to visual effects, seen here in the textures of costume, face, and hair, in the moistness of the sitter's eyes, and in the diaphanous plane of the cap. Details of dress in Dutch formal portraits are usually faithful reflections of the sitter's own clothing; an item such as the cap would have been lent to the artist if both parties found it convenient.
The portrait may have had a pendant, but no trace of one is known.
[2016; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
Copyright Image
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