Portrait of a Lady

The design is built from a few sharp shapes. The white veil forms a diamond that frames the pale oval of her face, and the black of her dress and the dark ground make that pale shape glow. Look at the transparent edge of the veil where it crosses her forehead and cheek: the painter renders the gauze with a few translucent strokes, so that you can see the skin through it. Her mouth is small and full, painted with a faint pink, and the tiny red edge of her belt lining and the gold of the buckle are the only warm colours. Rogier has slightly elongated her features and set her fingers in a graceful interlace that is more elegant than natural.

Van der Weyden ran the busiest workshop in Brussels, and his portraits set the pattern for Netherlandish painting for a generation. This panel passed through several noble collections in Europe and was bought by Andrew Mellon in 1926 from the dealer Duveen. It entered the National Gallery with the founding gift in 1937. Notice the two pins that hold the veil in place near the top of her head, painted so precisely that you can almost feel them. The whole effect is of a woman of quiet composure, captured in a moment of stillness that has lasted more than five and a half centuries.

Did You Know? The sitter is unknown, but her plucked hairline and tall veil were the height of fashion at the Burgundian court around 1460.