The Lady with a Fan is an original painting of a woman wearing a black lace veil on her head and a dark dress with a low-cut bodice, by the renowned court painter Diego Velázquez of Spain. On the basis of its place in Velázquez's stylistic development, the portrait is thought to have been painted between 1638 and 1639.
The Lady with a Fan is an enigmatic portrait. Although other Velázquez portraits are easily recognizable likenesses of the member...
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The Lady with a Fan is an original painting of a woman wearing a black lace veil on her head and a dark dress with a low-cut bodice, by the renowned court painter Diego Velázquez of Spain. On the basis of its place in Velázquez's stylistic development, the portrait is thought to have been painted between 1638 and 1639.
The Lady with a Fan is an enigmatic portrait. Although other Velázquez portraits are easily recognizable likenesses of the members of the Spanish royal family and high nobility, the sitter in Lady with a Fan has not yet been convincingly identified; there is a lack of accurate documentary information about the portrait. The details of the costume suggest that the sitter for The Lady with a Fan could be Marie de Rohan, the duchess of Chevreuse (1600-1679), because she was dressed according to French fashion of the late 1630s. There is, however, only one evidential reference indicating that Velázquez painted a Frenchwoman. This was a letter dated January 16, 1638, which...
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