Artwork
Young Woman with a Carnation

Young Woman with a Carnation is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Willem Drost. It dates from 1656 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The composition categorizes the piece within the portrait genre, centering on the visual relationship between the woman and the bloom.
The work is a portrait depicting a woman holding a carnation, specifically identified as Dianthus caryophyllus. Created by Willem Drost in 1656, the painting focuses on the sitter and the flower she presents. While the specific symbolic meaning of the carnation in this context is not detailed in the provided records, the inclusion of the flower alongside the female subject defines the image's iconographic content.
The composition categorizes the piece within the portrait genre, centering on the visual relationship between the woman and the bloom.
Technique & Style
Young Woman with a Carnation is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for mid-seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture. The canvas measures 78.6 cm in height by 67.8 cm in width, giving the composition a vertical orientation suited to a half-length figure study.
Stylistically, the work is a portrait genre painting in which a woman is depicted holding a Dianthus caryophyllus (carnation), a motif associated with Dutch portrait conventions of the period. The handling of oil paint on canvas allows for the layered tonal modeling typical of the tradition to which Willem Drost belonged.
The painting is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
History & Provenance
The oil painting Young Woman with a Carnation was created by Willem Drost in 1656. Executed on canvas, the work measures 78.6 cm in height and 67.8 cm in width. It depicts a woman holding a Dianthus caryophyllus. The painting is currently held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
Overview
Created in 1656 by Dutch painter Willem Drost, this oil on canvas presents a young woman holding a pink carnation. The work exemplifies the portraiture typical of the Dutch Golden Age, combining a restrained composition with subtle symbolic detail. It is part of the collection of Denmark’s National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst).
Artist & collection
Artist
Willem Drost (baptized 19 April 1633 – buried 25 February 1659) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker of history paintings and portraits.
















