Portrait of a Woman aged Twenty-six

The painting depicts a standing woman, her figure perfectly adapted to the long, narrow shape of the panel and contrasting with the green background (which has darkened over the years). The inscription at the upper left corner includes the sitter’s age and the date of the painting but her identity remains unknown, although the rings on her left hand suggest that she belonged to a burgher family. The choice of colours for the clothes create a lively contrast with the background: the skirt and sleeves are red, the bodice is black, and the white of the areas near her face increase its luminosity. The head and face are extremely delicately painted, as are this young woman’s eyes, which look to the left and reflect a light that enters from outside the pictorial space.

[Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, revised 2019]