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An unknown woman
Cornelis van Poelenburg - Enlarge image
An unknown woman
- Object:
Portrait miniature
- Place of origin:
Holland (painted)
- Date:
1631 (painted)
- Artist/Maker:
Cornelis van Poelenburg (probably, artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Oil on copper, in a fruitwood frame
- Credit Line:
Given by Mr W. A. J. Floersheim
- Museum number:
P.104-1931
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 118a, case 6
Object Type
Strictly speaking this small oil painting is not a 'miniature'. In the 17th century a 'miniature' was a painting in watercolour on vellum (fine animal skin). This oil is painted on copper, a traditional support for very small oil paintings. Copper is very smooth, unlike canvas, and allows the artist to work with small touches to produce a particularly fine effect. When these paintings were sold in 1842 the catalogue noted they were 'finished in the finest style, like enamel, and yet with the greatest freedom'.
Frames, especially those for pictures, draw an attention to an object as well as protecting it. On this frame the plain outer mouldings contrast with the narrower but richly decorated inner moulding. It leads our eye towards the picture and emphasises it value as an object.
People
This small oil painting belonged to the notable 18th-century collector, Horace Walpole. He owned both it and its pair, and he believed them to be a self-portrait by the artist Cornelis Poelenburg, and a portrait by Poelenburg of his wife. Walpole did not buy them himself but inherited them from his father the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.
Attribution
This portrait is inscribed on the back to show the woman's age, 23, and the date it was painted, 1631. Another inscription in English, probably by Horace Walpole, indicates that he believed it to be a portrait by Cornelis Poelenburgh of his wife. This attribution has not been accepted for many decades. In the 17th century painting small portraits in oil on copper was a particularly Netherlandish tradition, but most such portraits, like this one, remain unattributed.
