Portrait of a Woman

Netherlandish or French

ca. 1470–80 · Oil on oak panel · Robert Lehman Collection

A young woman wearing a gold and green velvet hennin reaches her left hand for something outside the picture plane. Her gaze, which follows her outstretched arm, encourages the viewer to wonder at the unseen furnishings of her environment. Previous scholarship offers two unconvincing suggestions as to the sitter's identity: Margaret of York (1446 -1503), Duchess of Burgundy, and Mary of Burgundy (1457 -1482), Margaret's stepdaughter. The picture remains without a secure attribution, preserving, somewhat unfortunately, the air of mystery surrounding the portrait.

Artist

Netherlandish or French

Date

ca. 1470–80

Medium

Oil on oak panel

Culture

Franco-Flemish

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975