Artwork
Young Lady with a Rose
Young Lady with a Rose is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Pieter Vanderlyn. It dates from 1732 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
She is adorned with a pearl necklace, an earring, a ring, and a belt, and wears a stomacher trimmed with lace, signaling refinement and social standing.
The portrait presents a young woman rendered in strict profile, a format historically associated with formal commemorative imagery and the conventions of eighteenth-century portraiture. She is adorned with a pearl necklace, an earring, a ring, and a belt, and wears a stomacher trimmed with lace, signaling refinement and social standing. The rose she holds serves as the painting's central symbolic element, traditionally read as an emblem of love, beauty, youth, and feminine virtue.
The combination of the sitter's youthful features with the flower suggests a meditation on the transience of beauty and the bloom of early womanhood, themes common to portrait conventions of the period. The strict profile pose, combined with delicate jewelry and floral attribute, frames the subject as both an individual likeness and an idealized representation of genteel femininity.
Technique & Style
Executed in oil on canvas, the portrait measures 82.6 by 68.6 centimeters and adheres to the conventions of early eighteenth-century portraiture. The sitter is rendered in strict profile, a compositional device drawn from formal portrait traditions, with attention to fine material details including a stomacher, lace, a belt, a pearl necklace, a ring, and an earring. The handling of these accessories suggests careful, descriptive brushwork intended to convey the textures of jewelry and fabric against the canvas support.
A rose, held by the young woman, serves as the painting's focal attribute and is integrated into the restrained palette typical of small-scale profile portraits of the period. The attribution to Pieter Vanderlyn remains qualified, and the work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
History & Provenance
Young Lady with a Rose is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is classified under The American Wing. The painting, executed in oil on canvas in 1732, is attributed to Pieter Vanderlyn and measures 82.6 by 68.6 centimeters. While its placement within the museum's holdings is documented, the available sources do not provide a specific inventory or accession number, nor do they detail any exhibition history for the work.
Overview
Young Lady with a Rose is an oil on canvas painting, representing one of the earliest surviving portraits from colonial America. The work depicts a young woman in a blue garment, her head slightly turned, holding a single pink rose. Her hair is styled away from her face, and a pearl earring catches the light against a dark, unadorned background, emphasizing her presence.
Artist & collection
Artist
Pieter Vanderlyn was born in Holland around 1687 and served with the Dutch navy off the coast of Africa before emigrating to colonial New York, likely via Curaçao, around 1718.
