Unknown Woman with a Dog
after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1550 - 1599
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
337 x 264 mm; painted surface 317 x 248 mm (13 1/4 x 10 3/8 in;12 1/2 x 9 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246454
Caption
One half of an early copy of an original pair of portraits by the Antwerp painter Quinten Metsys. For the other portrait in the pair see Unknown Man, Polesden Lacey, National Trust, 1246453. The gold chains about the necks of both sitters (presumably a married couple) are emblems of honour, raising them above the usual middling status of Metsys’s sitters. Scientific analysis reveals that the panels on which these pictures are painted were cut from trees felled in the middle of the 16th century, a little after the death of Metsys.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Unknown Woman with a Dog, after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530), 16th century. A half-length portrait of a middle aged woman, turned to the left and gazing to the left, wearing a black dress showing a white chemisette at the neck, with gold chain and black headdress; a small dog at her side on the right. In shadow box.
Provenance
Supposedly Lord Braye (1849 - 1928), bought by Colnaghi from Arthur Tooth & Sons, 1934, with this provenance; soon afterwards acquired by Mrs Greville; 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., stored in the cellar, page 160.
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
q matsys (signed, upside down)
Makers and roles
after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530) , artist