Lot 2011A Dα

The proceeds from this lot and Lempertz´s commission will be donated to humanitarian aid in the Ukraine.

This portrait, painted in 1557, depicts a young woman in courtly attire. She wears an embroidered black robe with puff sleeves and a light brown chemise with white ruffles at the neck and sleeves. Her carefully parted hair is adorned by an embroidered bonnet with trim that matches the decoration of the dress. The only jewellery she wears is a gold chain clasped tightly around her neck and a gold belt loosely around her waist with a scent pendant, a so-called pomander, which she holds in her delicate fingers. This fashion was predominant at the courts of France and Brussels in the 16th century.



Based on the woman's delicate facial features with her brown eyes and brown hair, it is thought that the work depicts a noble lady from France, Spain or Italy. The painter, however, could have come from Flanders, a region that was one of the most important centres of the global art trade in the 17th century. The names associated with this subtle and very high-quality portrait vary between the circle around Catherine van Hemessen (1527-1565) in the Netherlands and that of François Clouet (1510-1572) in France. In the collection of an Italian noble family, to which it belonged for over 200 years, it was considered to be the work of Sofonisba Angiussola.


In posture and physiognomy, in the depiction of the hands and in the details of the costume, our painting can be compared with a portrait from the collection of Magdalen College, Oxford University (Ill. 1). This is attributed to Catherine van Hemessen and is supposed to represent the Blessed Margaret of Lorraine (1463-1521), who, however, had died before the painter was born. Thus, the identification of the sitter in the Oxford portrait is hardly convincing, but the stylistic parallels and the similarity to the present work are all the more striking.