Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 236: 

Technical notes: The support consists of two oak
boards joined vertically with vertical grain. The painting
is in its original format. The panel has been thinned and
cradled. Fragmentary traces of bevelling on the top and
bottom (extending about 0.2–0.5 cm from the edge).
The preparation consists of an evenly applied white
chalk ground that covers the support completely. It has
been applied with a brush. Visible fingerprints in the
ground on the lower left edge.
The paint layer has been applied thinly and transparently
and has partly faded. Impasto is observed in the
highlights in the jewellery, in the hair, the sleeves and the
mirror. A reserve has been prepared in the thinly applied
bluish-grey background for the woman. Delicately modelled
paint layer in the hair, face, hands and clothes. The
contours of the arms and hands have been partly
enhanced. There are few distinct brushstrokes. On the
woman’s left shoulder an underdrawing in a wet medium
is partly visible. The pale pink flesh tones have been
painted over a darker, brownish-yellowish thin, semitransparent
underpainting, which also forms part of the
shadows in the shoulders, throat and arms. The flesh
tones are partly painted thinly. The face is rendered with
pink cheeks.
The veil almost merges into the greyish-blue paint
is employed in the hair and veil. Distinct brushstrokes
with thinly applied paint is used for the details.

Provenance: Purchased in 1962.

Bibliography: Supplement 1972 to NM Cat. 1958, p.
6; NM Cat. 1990, p. 405.

This emblematic painting with its symbolic content
bears the inscription “VISUS” (Sight). It is an allegorical
representation of one of the senses, sight, and thus
may have formed part of a series representing all five
senses. The work, purchased at Bukowski’s Auctions in
1962, is a waist-length depiction of a women clad only
in a gauzy garment that exposes both breasts. Some of
her hair has been combed back, the rest falls in
corkscrew curls on to one shoulder. Her coiffure is
embellished with a thin veil and pearls. She is grasping
one of her breasts with her left hand, while in her right
she holds up a mirror into which she is gazing. The
mirror is held to reflect her face, as can be seen from
the contemplative calm of her facial expression. This
allegorical female figure is depicted against a dark,
neutral background. The paint layer is thinly applied
in some places but there are areas of impasto in her
hair and the veil. The general nature of this painting
allow attribution not only to an anonymous painter
who may have been Flemish, but also to an artist from
Germany or even a painter in the school of Ehrenstrahl
during Sweden’s Great Power Era in the second
half of the 17th century.
KS
[End]

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