Lot 2026 Dα

Frans Pourbus II the Younger was the son of Frans I Pourbus. After the early death of his father, he became a pupil of his grandfather Pieter in Brussels. He soon became a famous portrait painter in Antwerp and worked for the Catholic and Habsburg nobility. Between 1600 and 1609 he was court portraitist to Vincenzo I Gonzaga in Mantua, where he most likely met Rubens. Around 1609 he was invited by Maria de´ Medici (Gonzaga's sister-in-law) to Paris, where he stayed until 1622.
Stylistically, this portrait can be placed in the period around 1610-1620, during Pourbus's stay in Paris, when he worked at the court of Henry IV and Louis XIII. The lady's clothing is also quite comparable to famous portraits from this period (for example the portrait of Maria de´ Medici, Musée Carnavalet, Paris or the portrait of Isabella Bourbon, Prado, Madrid).


The sitter wears a black cap and a cross, which suggests that she is probably a widow close to the French court.