Oil painting: An Unknown Lady by Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, oil on canvas, c.1640

Museum number

A7

Object

Oil painting: An Unknown Lady by Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, oil on canvas, c.1640

Description

p>The unidentified lady must have been wealthy, for she is richly attired and adorned with fine jewellery which includes a crucifix on a gold strand. It is possible that she was a citizen of Amsterdam where the artist Jacob Adriaensz Backer lived and worked from 1633. However, her ostentation would have been unusual in Amsterdam at that time, and it is possible that she was instead from the Catholic southern Netherlands. The treatment of the landscape background is also more Flemish than Dutch, and exemplifies how Backer was particularly influenced by Flemish painting.

Three quarter portrait of a lady, facing slightly to the left, eyes to the front. Her right hand rests upon her train which is on a table on her right side, covered with a red cloth. A fan also rests on the table. She has brown hair, in a bun at the back of her head, fastened with a gold band, with loose waves of hair to either side of her head, and wisps of hair across her forehead. She is richly dressed in black brocade. She wears a white stomacher embroidered with gold, across which goes the black lacing of the bodice. The bodice and skirt have gold brocade trim. She wears large and elaborate white lace cuffs and collar, resting low on her shoulders. A bunch of many pearl strands hang from her left shoulder to the front of the bodice fastened with black and gold ribbons,and a gold and pearl pendent. She has a pearl choker with a crucifix on a gold strand, bracelets of 3 pearl strands on each wrist and a gold ring on each hand. In the background on the left is a vista of woodland and skay. A bunch of roses rests on the balustrade. On the right a heavy red velvet curtain.

Materials

Oil

Inscription

front ll signed J. A. B in monogram.

On display?

Yes

Further description

Simple name

Painting

Subject

Portrait

Dimensions

framed: 8.5cm (d) x 126.4cm (h) x 112.0000cm (w)
regular: 88.4cm (h) x 101.6cm (w)