Portrait of Mrs. Leneve
1657
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1657
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a woman in a loose, silky gown, her hand resting on a carved stone ledge. Pearls drip from her ears and throat, catching the light. What’s wild is that her face wasn’t always this soft. Someone later painted over her—lowered her brows, shrank her lips, even added curls—trying to make her look “prettier” by later standards. The museum peeled those layers off, so we see her the way the artist did: a 17th-century beauty with heavy lids and a strong chin. To see more faces like this, look up england, 17th century.
