Artwork
Young Lady with a Fan
Young Lady with a Fan is an oil painting by the Baroque artist The Gansevoort Limner. It dates from 1737 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: AEtate 19- / Ao 1737-
About this work
Technique & Style
The fan’s painted sticks and leaf are rendered with delicate stippling over a mid-tone ground, producing a subtle play of light across the object’s surface.
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, with the support prepared in the customary manner for eighteenth-century American portraits: a plain-weave linen canvas sized with animal glue and primed with a chalk ground.
Handling is precise and linear, consistent with the limner tradition of delineating costume details and physiognomy with careful brushwork. The modeling of the sitter’s features is restrained, using thin, translucent glazes to articulate shadow around the eyes and beneath the chin, while opaque scumbles define the lace and brocade of the costume. The fan’s painted sticks and leaf are rendered with delicate stippling over a mid-tone ground, producing a subtle play of light across the object’s surface.
Brushmarks remain visible at close range, indicating the use of a fine, pointed sable brush rather than a palette knife.
Overall condition is stable, with only minor abrasion along the upper paint passages and no evident cupping or flaking; the varnish layer appears intact and even in raking light.
History & Provenance
Painted in 1737, this oil on canvas was created by the artist known as the Gansevoort Limner, also identified as Pieter Vanderlyn. The work's early history connects it to Kingston, New York, where it remained within a single family whose ancestors had settled in the region by 1680.
In 1953, Jack Bender acquired the painting from this Kingston family. Bender subsequently sold the piece that same year to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Following the Garbisches' ownership, the artwork was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., entering the collection in 1980.
The painting Young Lady with a Fan is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was accessioned by the museum in 1980 through the bequest of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Prior to this acquisition, the work was sold in 1953 to the Garbisches by Jack Bender, who reportedly purchased it from a Kingston, New York family with deep local roots dating back to 1680. The source material does not list any specific exhibitions where the work has been displayed.
Context
The work is an oil on canvas painting created in 1737 by The Gansevoort Limner, Pieter Vanderlyn. It entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through a bequest from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch in 1980, having previously been owned by a Kingston family whose ancestors settled in the area in 1680. The painting is catalogued in the National Gallery of Art's collection and documented in scholarly sources as part of the artist's oeuvre, reflecting the portraiture traditions of colonial America.
Overview
Young Lady with a Fan is an oil on canvas painted in 1737 by the anonymous artist known as the Gansevoort Limner. The work portrays a seated young woman, her blonde hair styled in a modest fashion, dressed in a green gown with a white under‑shirt and a matching belt, holding a fan on her lap.
Subject & Meaning
The sitter’s pose, with her left hand resting on a nearby table that bears a book and a small key‑like object, suggests a moment of quiet contemplation or private correspondence. The fan, a common accessory of the period, adds an element of genteel leisure.
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