Artwork
Profile Portrait of a Lady
Profile Portrait of a Lady is an oil painting. It dates from 1410 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts an unidentified woman shown in strict left-facing profile, a format associated with humanist portraiture of the early fifteenth century.
The painting depicts an unidentified woman shown in strict left-facing profile, a format associated with humanist portraiture of the early fifteenth century. Her hair has been plucked above the forehead to create a high hairline, and she wears a balzo, a ring-shaped headdress set toward the back of the head, adorned with gilded appliqués. The sitter's costume signals elite social rank: an elaborate coiffure secured with pins, a very high fur-lined collar from which the white shirt's turned-back cuffs emerge, a gold collar of small discs, a gown of precious blue damask cloth, a high and tightly cinched waist, and gold vine-leaf cords suspended from the sleeves.
The bust is slightly turned to display these ornaments, producing a somewhat forced foreshortening. A dark blue background throws the gold and the luminous face into relief, drawing the viewer's eye first to the sitter's countenance. The work was long identified, at nineteenth-century sales, as a portrait of Blanche, daughter of Henry IV of England, though no firm identification of the subject has been established.
Technique & Style
Created circa 1410, the work is an oil painting executed on a wooden panel measuring 52 by 36.6 centimeters. The artist employs oil paint to achieve a luminous and refined depiction of the sitter's face, set against a dark blue background that accentuates the gold details and facial pallor. Stylistically, the portrait presents a perfect profile view with a humanistic echo, characterized by meticulous attention to decorative elements signifying high social status.
These include a high forehead achieved through plucking, an elaborate balzo headdress with gold applications, a high fur-lined collar, and a blue damask gown with hanging vine motifs. While the facial rendering is precise, the composition features a slightly rotated bust to display these ornaments, resulting in a perspective that appears somewhat forced and lacks coherent proportion. The technique is identified as characteristic of a Franco-Flemish master utilizing the oil medium.
History & Provenance
Dated to approximately 1410, this oil-on-panel work by an anonymous Franco-Flemish artist was first recorded in the nineteenth-century collection of Henry Valentine Stafford Jerningham, 9th Baron of Stafford. Following his death, it was sold at Christie's in London in 1885, misidentified as Blanche, daughter of Henry IV. The painting subsequently passed through the hands of James Gurney and a buyer named Cooper before appearing in a 1922 Paris sale of sequestered property belonging to M. de Villeroy.
Acquired shortly thereafter by Duveen Brothers, the work was sold to Clarence H. Mackay in 1923. Duveen repurchased the panel in 1935 and finally sold it in December 1936 to the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. It was gifted to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1937, forming part of the museum's founding collection.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, accessioned as part of the Andrew W. Mellon Collection. Its inventory record corresponds to Mellon no. 1536. The work entered the Gallery in 1937 as a gift from The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust.
It has no recorded exhibition history prior to its acquisition by Mellon; the painting was first publicly displayed as part of the Gallery’s founding collection in 1937.
Overview
The "Profile Portrait of a Lady" is an oil on panel painting created around 1410 by an anonymous Franco-Flemish artist. This work, now housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, presents a singular female figure in strict profile. It exemplifies early Northern European portraiture, focusing on the sitter's distinct features and contemporary attire, offering a window into the fashion and artistic conventions of the period.
Artist & collection
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