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Portrait of a Woman

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Portrait of a Woman
Image Not Available for Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman

Artist Joos van Cleve (South Netherlandish, died 1540/1541)
Dateabout 1520-1530
Dimensions16 5/8 × 13 3/8 in. (42.2 × 34 cm)
Frame: 20 3/4 × 17 3/8 × 2 in. (52.7 × 44.1 × 5.1 cm)
With frame: 21 × 17 1/4 in. (53.3 × 43.8 cm)
Mediumoil on wood panel
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1926.62
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 16
Label TextThe companion to Portrait of a Man by the same artist, also in TMA's collection, this small painting depicts a young woman dressed in fur and velvet and fine linen. In what may be a reference to an impending or recent marriage, she holds up a ring. In her left hand is a rosary set with small pearls, suggesting both her piety and her wealth. As was traditional for paired portraits, the woman is on the man’s left, indicating her status in Renaissance Europe as subordinate to her husband.Published ReferencesConway, M., The Van Eycks and Their Followers, London, 1921, p. 411.

Baldass, L., Joos van Cleve, der Meister des Todes Mariä, Vienna, 1925, I, p. 27; II, p. 8, no. 79, p. 26, figs. 57, 58.

Friedländer, M.J., Die Altniederländische Malerei, Leyden, 1934, IX, no. 116.

Godwin, Blake-More, Catalogue of European Paintings, Toledo, 1939, p. 72, repr. p. 73.

Constable, W. G., Art Collecting in the United States of America: An Outline of a History, London, T. Nelson, 1964, p. 130.

"Painting in Northern Europe 1450-1550," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 13, no. 2, Summer 1970, p. 38, repr. p. 39.

Friedländer, M.J., Early Netherlandish Painting (ed. H. Pauwels), New York, 1972, IXa, no. 116, pls. 120, 121, fig. 116.

John G. Johnston Collection, Catalogue of Flemish and Dutch Paintings, Philadelphia, 1972, p. 24.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 38, pl. 84.

Hand, John Oliver, Joos van Cleve: the Early and Mature Paintings, Princeton (diss.), 1978, pp. 208, 209, 304, repr. fig. 75.

Flemish Paintings in America, Antwerp, 1992, repr. p. 343.

Hand, John Oliver, Joos Van Cleve: The Complete Paintings, New Haven, Yale, 2004, p. 89, no. 67, p. 155, fig. 92B, p. 91.

Exhibition HistoryToledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Portraits and Portraiture Throughout the Ages, 1937, no. 5.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art; Toronto, Canada, Art Gallery of Toronto, Two Cities Collect, 1948, no. 8, repr.

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