The Needlewoman
The Needlewoman | |
---|---|
Spanish: La costurera | |
Artist | Diego Velázquez |
Year | c. 1635-1643 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 74 cm × 60 cm (29 in × 24 in) |
Location | National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
The Needlewoman (Spanish: La costurera) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Diego Velázquez, painted between 1635 and 1643.[1] It is housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Subject
The Needlewoman is an unfinished portrait, in which the head, modeled in light and shadow, is the most fully realized part. The arms and hands are sketched in briefly. The result displays Velázquez's facility for portraying gesture, his method of summarily constructing the figure, and his ability to suggest a subject's melding into the surrounding atmosphere.[2]
Similarities have been noted between The Needlewoman and The Lady with a Fan; not only do the facial features seem consistent, but so, too, is the brushwork of the face and chest.[3] Although the subject's identity is not known for certain, it has been proposed that she was Francisca Vélazquez del Mazo, the artist's daughter. If, indeed, the subject in both paintings was the same sitter, it would at least suggest an intimacy between artist and subject.[4]
Attribution
The attribution has not been uncontested. As recently as 1944 biographer F. J. Sánchez Cantón concluded that the painting was begun by Velázquez but completed by his son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo. However, the traditional attribution of the painting as entirely by the master is supported by the inventory made of the work in Velázquez's rooms at the time of his death, which includes a description of "Another head, of a woman doing needlework".[5]
The painting came into the possession of Andrew W. Mellon in 1927, thence to the National Gallery as part of the Mellon collection in 1937.
See also
References
References
López-Rey, Jóse, Velázquez: Catalogue Raisonné. Taschen, 1999. ISBN 3-8228-6533-8
External links
- The Needlewoman at the National Gallery of Art website
- Velázquez , exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this painting (see index)
- v
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- The Lunch (c. 1617)
- Old Woman Frying Eggs (c. 1618)
- The Farmers' Lunch (1618)
- Three Musicians (1618)
- The Waterseller of Seville (1618–1622)
- The Kitchen Maid (1620–1622)
- The Needlewoman (c. 1635–1643)
- The Triumph of Bacchus (1628–1629)
- Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan (1629)
- The Surrender of Breda (1634–1635)
- Mars Resting (1640)
- Rokeby Venus (c. 1647–1651)
- Female Figure (1648)
- Las Hilanderas (c. 1657)
- Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1618)
- Saint Paul (1618–1620)
- Adoration of the Magi (1619)
- Joseph's Tunic (1630)
- Temptation of St. Thomas (1632)
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- The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente (1620)
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- Philip IV in Armour (after 1623)
- Count-Duke of Olivares (1624)
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- Juan Martínez Montañés (1635–1636)
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- Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress (1659)
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portraits
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- Count-Duke of Olivares (1634)
- Margarita of Austria (1634)
- Philip III (1634–1635)
- Philip IV (1635–1636)
- Prince Balthasar Charles (1635)
- Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School (1636)
- Calabacillas (1626–1632)
- Don John of Austria (1632–1633)
- Barbarroja (1633)
- Calabacillas (1637–1639)
- Sebastián de Morra (c. 1645)
- Don Diego de Acedo (1645)
- View of the Garden of the Villa Medici (c. 1630)
- Statue of Velázquez (1899, Madrid)
- El ministerio del tiempo (television series)