Lady with a Fan

Lady with a Fan is executed in oil on canvas, a standard support for Anthony van Dyck's portrait practice. The canvas measures 109.7 by 97 centimeters, providing a near-square format suited to a half- or three-quarter-length sitter. The work is classified as a painting within the portrait genre and is held in the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art.

The sources confirm only the medium and dimensions; they offer no specific information on handling, brushwork, condition, palette, or stylistic analysis, so further claims about those aspects cannot be grounded.

Executed in 1628, this portrait likely entered the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels by 1653, a presence confirmed by its inclusion in David Teniers the Younger's depiction of the Archduke's gallery. Earlier ownership is speculative, with suggestions linking the work to the Spinola family in Spain before it was transported to Genoa by Geronima Di Negro Centurione. By 1680, the painting appeared in an inventory of the Doria family collection, where it was observed by Otto Mündler in 1857.

It presumably passed by inheritance to Marchese Ambrogio Doria and subsequently to his son, Giorgio Doria. By 1928, the work was held by Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Rome. In March 1932, Contini Bonacossi sold the canvas to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which later gifted it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1957.

Lady with a Fan is held in the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., having been gifted to the institution in 1957. Prior to this, the work was sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in March 1932. The painting's earlier history includes probable ownership by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm by 1653, a presence in the Doria family collection in Genoa by 1680, and possession by Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Rome by 1928.

While specific inventory numbers are not detailed in the provided records, the work's trajectory moves from imperial and aristocratic European collections to American private hands before entering the national museum. The provided sources do not list specific public exhibition events or dates beyond its inclusion in a depicted cabinet collection in the seventeenth century.

Sir Anthony van Dyck's "Lady with a Fan," created around 1628, is an oil on canvas portrait. It features an unidentified woman, depicted in elaborate attire, engaging the viewer directly with her gaze. The artwork showcases the artist's skill in rendering detailed textures and capturing a lifelike presence, characteristic of his portraiture during this period.