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Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a voluminous, gold-trimmed, white satin gown and a black overdress stands holding a closed fan in this vertical portrait painting. Her body and face are angled to our right, and she looks at us from the corners of her gray eyes. She has pale skin, a straight nose, thin lips, and a slight double chin. Chin-length brown waves frame her face, and the rest of her hair is pulled back. A pearl necklace lies at the base of her neck, though traces of another necklace, originally painted higher up on the neck like a choker, are visible. A lace-edged collar lies along her shoulders, and more lace lines a kerchief tucked into the low, straight neckline of her bodice. The gown’s puffy sleeves are tied around the elbows and end in wide lace-lined cuffs at the wrists. The sleeves and the front and bottom edges of the bodice are lined in glittery gold. A bejeweled gold brooch nestled in black lace is pinned to the front of her gown. A gold chain links the brooch to one side of the bodice before draping across her chest and lying over the other shoulder. A white satin ribbon is tied with a bow around her waist over the black overdress, which has subtle suggestions of a black-on-black pattern down the front. The fan is in her left hand, to our right, perhaps attached to a length of gold chain visible under her wrist. Her other hand rests in the folds of the black overdress. Some brushstrokes are visible in the woman’s clothing and in the walnut-brown background.

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Lady with a Fan, c. 1628

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 42

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 109.7 x 97 cm (43 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.)

framed: 151.5 x 134.6 x 16.5 cm (59 5/8 x 53 x 6 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.1

Artists / Makers

Sir Anthony van Dyck (artist) Flemish, 1599 - 1641

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

Anthony van Dyck painted this portrait of an upper-class Antwerp burgher around 1628, shortly after he returned to Antwerp from a six-year sojourn in Italy. At that time, Antwerp's long-established portrait tradition emphasized a sitter's virtuous character through restrained gestures and a direct gaze. However, while in Italy, Van Dyck's portrait style had evolved and he afterward tended to portray his sitters with gentle grace and elegant demeanor. Moved by his remarkable ability to paint likenesses that were as intimate as they were noble, Antwerp patrons eagerly commissioned works by his hand.

The woman in the Gallery's portrait exemplifies Van Dyck's approach to portraiture that so appealed to his Antwerp clientele. As she turns her head slightly to look directly at the viewer, the woman stands in a relaxed yet dignified manner, her right hand gently grasping her black overdress and her left hand holding a closed fan by her side. Her hair is arranged loosely over her neck and elegantly frames her face in a manner that is fashionable yet subtle, while her extraordinary white satin dress features discreetly placed jewelry that attests to her aristocratic refinement.

Although the sitter's name is not known, she has been traditionally identified as Doña Polyxena Spinola Guzman de Leganés (1600–1637), daughter of the Genoese general commander of the Spanish army in the southern Netherlands Ambrogio Spinola (1569–1630). Van Dyck did paint Doña Polyxena while he lived in Genoa, probably in the winter of 1621–1622. However, no documents indicate that she ever visited Antwerp and the sitter possesses entirely different facial characteristics than does Doña Polyxena in her known portraits. Whatever the woman's identity, Van Dyck ably imbued her with dignity, humanity, and grace, the hallmarks of his artistic genius.

Provenance

Probably Archduke Leopold Wilhelm [1614-1662], Brussels, by 1653.[1] Possibly Spinola family, Spain; possibly Marchesa Geronima Centurione, Genoa; probably Doria family, Genoa, by 1680;[2] probably by inheritance to Marchese Ambrogio Doria [d. 1913], Genoa;[3] probably by inheritance to his son, Marchese Giorgio Doria, Genoa;[4] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome), by 1928;[5] sold March 1932 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1957 to NGA.

[1] This painting was presumably in Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's collection by 1653, when David Teniers the Younger included it in a painting of the Archduke's cabinet.

[2] Mario Menotti, "Van Dyck a Genova," Archivio storico dell'arte, 2nd series, anno 3 (1897): 444 note 3. According to Menotti, the painting had been brought to Genoa from Spain by Geronima Di Negro Centurione, who had acquired it from the Spinola family. He also identifies the painting with a reference in a 1680 inventory of the Doria collection, in which collection Otto Mündler saw the painting in April and October 1857; see "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855-1858," ed. Carol Togner Dowd, Walpole Society 51 (1985): 179, 276.

[3] See Menotti 1897: 375, repro.

[4] No specific evidence exists that the painting was in the son's collection. However, it is unlikely that Alessandro Contini Bonacossi would have already acquired this painting by the time of Ambrogio Doria's death in 1913.

[5] A document dated 28 May 1928 from the Ministry of Education in the Commune of Rome establishes that Count Contini Bonacossi owned the painting by this time (see copy in NGA curatorial files).

[6] A bill of sale for this painting dates to March 4, 1932, for which an export license was obtained later that summer (see copies in NGA curatorial files); see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1209.

Associated Names

Centurione, Geronima, Marchesa
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Doria, Ambrogio, Marchese
Doria, Giorgio, Marchese
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke of Austria

Exhibition History

1933: Catalogue of a Century of Progess Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 59.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 104.

1984: Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1984-1985, no. 75, as Portrait of a Lady in Black, White, and Gold.

1985: Loan for display with permanent collection, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 1985-1987.

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 52-53, color repro.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 81, repro.

2003: Dutch and Flemish Treasures from the National Gallery of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2003, no cat.

Bibliography

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 208, no. 92, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 294, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 48.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 40, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 122, repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 115-116, fig. 105.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 259, no. 329, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 148, repro.

1985: Mündler, Otto. "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler." Ed. Carol Togneri Dowd. Walpole Society 51 (1985): 179, 276.

2004: Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: III.203

2005: Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 71-74, color repro.

2020: Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 138.