Main Menu

Portrait of a Woman

Skip to main content
Collections Menu

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 displayed on the other side of the tapestry on this wall, 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.

Portrait of a Man
Joos van Cleve
about 1520-1530
A Summer Landscape with Harvesters
Joos de Momper the Younger
about 1610
Portrait of a Woman
Ambrosius Benson
about 1525-1530
Portrait of a Woman
Hans Müelich
1540
Young Man with a Plumed Hat
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1631
Fruit, Flowers, and Shells
Balthasar van der Ast
about 1620 - 29
Saint Martin Sharing His Mantle
After Anthony van Dyck
about 1622
View of Dordrecht
Jan van Goyen
1649
The Garden of the Old Palace, Brussels
Jan van der Heyden
about 1670
Approaching the Bridge
Aert van der Neer
about 1635-1640
Villagers Merrymaking at an Inn
Adriaen van Ostade
1652

Membership

Become a TMA member today

Support TMA

Help support the TMA mission