Lady with an Arrow

Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Unlike the other paintings in this gallery, this work is not a portrait. Instead, it is a picture type known as an allegory, or symbolic figure. The arrow the woman holds refers to the fortunes of love.
It was more common to find a variety of painted subjects in Dutch colonial homes in New York and the Hudson Valley than in other colonial households. This wide-ranging taste was inspired by Dutch cultural traditions, which for two centuries had prized the production and display of landscapes, still lifes, and allegories, as well as portraiture.
Caption
American. Lady with an Arrow, ca. 1715. Oil on wood panel, 26 3/8 × 21 1/16 in. (67 × 53.5 cm) frame: 33 1/2 × 28 1/4 × 3 in. (85.1 × 71.8 × 7.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by anonymous donors and the Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.89.1. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.89.1_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Lady with an Arrow
Date
ca. 1715
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Classification
Dimensions
26 3/8 × 21 1/16 in. (67 × 53.5 cm) frame: 33 1/2 × 28 1/4 × 3 in. (85.1 × 71.8 × 7.6 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds given by anonymous donors and the Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Accession Number
64.89.1
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Was the wood this was painted on, always curved? Or did that happen over time?
That happened over time. The artist was working on two pieces of wood joined together. Over time the painting became warped from temperature and humidity changes and started to split into the two pieces. Conservators have managed to keep it stable.
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