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Dutch, 'Portrait of a Lady with a Fan', 1647

About the work

The young woman in this portrait is shown half length, hands folded in the conventional way for women sitters at this time. We don’t know who she is, or who painted her. Her dress is demure but fashionable and costly. She wears satin and lace, and pearls round both wrists, round her neck and on the little cap at the back of her head. She holds a fan in slender fingers, a sign of gentility.

The two lions in the diamond at the top left corner of the picture have been suggested as part of the coat of arms of the Barons of Basseghem, near Bruges. The painting is dated 1647, when Bruges was in the Southern Netherlands, yet the style suggests a painter from Amsterdam in the north.

Whoever she is, the artist has shown her with the trace of a smile playing about her mouth and in the softness of her eyes as she looks out at us.

Key facts

Full title
Portrait of a Lady with a Fan
Artist
Dutch
Date made
1647
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
84.8 × 69.9 cm
Inscription summary
Dated
Acquisition credit
Bequeathed by Lt.-Col. J.H. Ollney, 1837
Inventory number
NG140
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

About this record

If you know more about this work or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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