Portrait of a Woman
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The Conservator's Eye
An X radiograph of this portrait reveals a compositional change invisible to the naked eye: the elimination of an elaborate blue drape that initially hung from the sitter’s right shoulder and wrapped around her waist. This hidden feature shows up in the radiograph because Robert Feke used lead white pigment to paint the highlights. Lead is a dense material that absorbs X-rays, causing the highlights to appear white in the radiograph, even where they have been covered with additional paint. The blue color of the draping is visible within the cracks under strong magnification. Feke made this change late in the painting process, but it is unknown if the change was made at the sitter’s request.
Caption
Robert Feke American, ca.1707–ca.1752. Portrait of a Woman, 1748. Oil on canvas, 49 3/8 x 39 9/16 in. (125.4 x 100.5 cm) frame: 59 3/8 x 49 9/16 x 4 1/4 in. (150.8 x 125.9 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Museum Purchase Fund, 43.229. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 43.229_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Portrait of a Woman
Date
1748
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
49 3/8 x 39 9/16 in. (125.4 x 100.5 cm) frame: 59 3/8 x 49 9/16 x 4 1/4 in. (150.8 x 125.9 x 10.8 cm)
Signatures
Unsigned
Credit Line
Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Museum Purchase Fund
Accession Number
43.229
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
Do you know what kind of flower the woman is holding, and if it has some symbolism?
Hello! Thank you for trying the ASK app today. That is a very interesting question re: the flower. I think you are the first person to ask. One moment while we look through our curatorial notes and see if we can find an answer for you. Feel free to walk around that room while we research!Great, thanks again.Thank you for waiting! We cannot find anything in our notes about this particular flower (i.e., what type of flower it is and if that particular flower had symbolism due to the type/color/etc.). However, we do have a few sources that discuss women in colonial portraiture holding flowers as a symbol of everything from fertility (i.e., she is a young woman of marriageable age at this point) to the fleeting nature of life and age (i.e., she is in the prime of her life, but like a flower, will eventually wither), to hobby interests (i.e., the woman being painted may have been an avid gardener!).Apologies for such a very broad answer, but thank you for giving us a new question to research!No, it's great! ThanksWho was this?
We're not sure of this woman's identity, but we can see that her gown is magnificent! It's both a sign of her wealth and the artist's innovation.Feke was a popular portraitist in the English American colonies. He sometimes used silver in his painting to make certain elements, like her gown, more lustrous.
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