Who painted Lady with a fan?

Lady with a fan was painted by Peter Danckerts de Rij in 1642.

Where can I see Lady with a fan?

Lady with a fan is held by Kunsthistorisches Museum.

What movement is Lady with a fan?

Lady with a fan is associated with Dutch Golden Age.

Artwork

Lady with a fan

Peter Danckerts de Rij , 1642

Lady with a fan is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Peter Danckerts de Rij. It dates from 1642 and is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

The painting is a portrait of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, the Polish-Lithuanian royal princess identified as its main subject.

The painting is a portrait of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, the Polish-Lithuanian royal princess identified as its main subject. Rendered in oil on canvas, the work belongs to the genre of court portraiture, in which the sitter's identity and status are conveyed through pose, attire, and attributes rather than narrative action. The fan held by the sitter functions as a conventional accessory of seventeenth-century aristocratic portraiture, signaling refinement, leisure, and feminine elegance while also serving as a compositional device that draws the viewer's eye toward the figure's face and upper body.

As a likeness of a member of the Vasa dynasty, the portrait participates in a tradition of dynastic imagery that documented royal lineage and reinforced political legitimacy through visual representation. The combination of the sitter's regal bearing and the carefully chosen attribute of the fan situates the work within the iconographic vocabulary used to portray noblewomen of the period, where personal likeness and symbolic display of rank are intertwined.

Technique & Style

Lady with a fan is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for mid-seventeenth-century Northern European portraiture. The work is classified as a portrait painting, consistent with its depiction of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa. Its physical format is a vertical canvas measuring 115 cm in height by 96.5 cm in width, proportions well suited to a half- or three-quarter-length seated sitter.

Stylistically, the painting belongs to the portrait tradition practiced by Peter Danckerts de Rij in 1642, when the canvas was produced. The medium of oil on canvas allowed for the layered handling and refined surface finish typical of courtly portraiture of the period, supporting detailed rendering of the sitter and attributes such as the fan.

History & Provenance

The painting is held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, where it is inventoried as a work by Peter Danckerts de Rij.

It was shown at the exhibition “Peter Danckerts de Rij (1605–1661): Ein niederländischer Maler am Wiener Hof,” held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum from 18 November 2005 to 26 February 2006.

Overview

The painting 'Lady with a Fan' is a 1642 oil portrait by Peter Danckerts de Rij, a Dutch painter active in Eastern Europe. It is part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum's collection.

Artist & collection

Artist

Peter Danckerts de Rij

Pieter, Peeter, or Peter Danckerts de Rij, Dankers de Ry, or Peteris Dankersas (1605, in Amsterdam – buried 15 December 1660, Amsterdam). was a Dutch Golden Age painter mostly active in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden.