An Unknown Woman
Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1660 - 1669
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 1016 mm (50 x 40 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246446
Caption
The identity of this sitter is unknown although it may be significant that Huysmans, a Flemish painter in Restoration England, was particularly favoured by the Queen Catherine of Braganza and her Catholic courtiers. She gestures to a sculpture of the infant god Bacchus to indicate hopes of matrimony, or perhaps marital fecundity.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, An Unknown Woman byJacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), 1660s. A three-quarter length portrait of a young woman turned to the right, gazing at the viewer. Her left arm is resting on a stone ledge and her right hand is pointing to a bacchic statue outside a window on the right. She has brown curly hair with curls framing her brow and a ringlet falling on her right shoulder. She wears a red satin dress ornamented with pearls and has a brown stole draped over both her arms. Behind her on the left is a patterned gold drape with a gold fringe.
Provenance
Purchased by William McEwan in 1900; The bequest of Margaret (Anderson) McEwan, The Hon. Mrs Ronald - later Dame Margaret - Henry Fulke Greville, DBE (1863-1942) from probate records linked with the donation of the property to the National Trust in 1943. This item found on the record for Polesden Lacey pictures, drawings etc., the Dining Room, page 124.
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist
