The Needlewoman

c. 1640/1650

Diego Velázquez

Artist, Spanish, 1599 - 1660

Shown from the waist up, a woman with pale skin and brown hair, wearing a dark corset and white fabric over her shoulders, looks down at needlework in her hands in this vertical painting. Her cheeks are rosy and her dark hair is pulled back, though it seems looser down the sides of her face. A small, coral-red, crescent shape at the back of her head could be covering her hair or holding it in place. White, nearly translucent fabric lies loosely across her shoulders over a dark, moss-brown, long-sleeved dress. Her breasts swell over the squared, lace-trimmed neckline. She holds white fabric and perhaps a needle in her hands, which rest on a tan cushion on her lap. The scene is loosely painted throughout so some of the details are difficult to make out. A darker spot along her right index finger could be a thimble. The background is the same olive-tan of the cushion.

Media Options

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Diego Velázquez ranks among the greatest masters of seventeenth-century Europe. By 1623, the twenty-four-year-old artist was established as court painter to Philip IV in Madrid. For nearly forty years, he was primarily occupied with painting remarkably innovative portraits of the monarch and the royal family. But in his spare hours, Velázquez turned to subjects that interested him personally; The Needlewoman is among those works.

His observation of the optical effects of light on the forms he painted caused Velázquez to abandon the tenebrism -- or extreme contrast of lights and darks -- that characterized his earlier works in favor of a softer style. Here, no area is obscured by darkness. The artist used a gentle light and deep, but translucent, shadow to reveal each plane of the face, to sculpt the swelling bosom, and to suggest the repetitive motion of the hand.

Because the painting remains unfinished, the steps in the artist's process are visible. He began by priming the canvas with a gray-green base. Next, he indicated the main forms of the composition, sketching them in with darker paint, then brushing them in with broad areas of opaque color, and finally, building up the face -- the only area that appears to be finished -- with transparent layers of glaze, giving it the effect of flesh seen through softly diffused light.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 74 x 60 cm (29 1/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
    framed: 102.2 x 88.3 x 7.6 cm (40 1/4 x 34 3/4 x 3 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.81

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

In the artist's possession at his death, 1660. Probably Pierre-Armand-Jean-Vincent-Hippolyte, Marquis de Gouvello de Keriaval [1782-1870], Château de Kerlévénant, Sarzeau, Morbihan, Brittany.[1] Madame Christiane de Polès [d. 1936], Paris; sold 5 July 1926 to (Wildenstein and Co., Paris);[2] consigned to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[3] by whom purchased 9 March 1927;[4] purchased on same day by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[5] deeded 12 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The ownership of the painting by the Gouvello de Keriaval is given by August L. Mayer, A Portrait by Veaézquez. Francisca Velézquez, Daughter of the Master (The Woman Sewing), (New York, c. 1935), 4. For a few facts about the collector, Hippolyte de Gouvello, see H. Frotier de la Messalière, Filiations Brétonnes, 1650-1912, (Saint-Briem, 1913): vol. 2, 570.
[2] Noted in 14 September 1988 letter from Mrs. Ay-Whang Hsia, Vice-President of Wildenstein and Co., New York, NGA curatorial files.
[3] The Knoedler stockbooks, kept at The Getty Provenance Index.
[4] Noted in 14 September 1988 letter from Ay-Whang Hsia.
[5] David Finley notebook, copy in NGA curatorial files (original notebook in Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1989

  • Velázquez. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1989-1990, no. 81, 216, pl. 29 (in Spanish version: no. 61, repro. 357).

2001

  • Velázquez: Il suo terzo viaggio in Italia [Velázquez: His Third Trip to Italy], Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome, 2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2006

  • Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2006-2007, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1935

  • Mayer, August L. A Portrait by Velázquez. Francisca Velázquez, Daughter of the Master (The Woman Sewing). New York, [1935].

1936

  • Mayer, August L. Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings. London, 1936: 132, no. 558, pl. 189.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 207, no. 81.

1942

  • Sánchez Cantón, Francisco J. "Como vivía Velázquez: inventario descubierto por D. F. Rodríquez Marín." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 15 (1942): 79.

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 216.

1943

  • Lafuente Ferrari, Enrique. Paintings and Drawings of Velázquez. Complete Edition. London and New York, 1943: 25, no. 77, pl. 93.

1944

  • Sánchez Cantón, Francisco J. Review of Veázquez by E. Lafuente Ferrari. In Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 17 (1944): 136.

1945

  • Cook 1945, 80-82.

  • Sánchez Cantón, Francisco J. "New Facts About Velázquez." The Burlington Magazaine 87 (1945): 293.

  • Soria, Martin S. Review of The Paintings and Drawings of Velázquez by Enrique Lafuente Ferrari. In The Art Bulletin 27 (September, 1945): 214.

1948

  • López-Rey, José. Review of Archivo Español de Arte (1940-1946). In Gazette des Beaux-Arts 33 (January-June 1948): 60-61.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 46, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 82, color repro.

1955

  • Pantorba, Bernardino de [José López Jimemez]. La vida y la obra de Velázquez: estudio biografico y crítico. Madrid, 1955: 232, no. 164.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 32, repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 114.

1959

  • Kubler, George, and Martin S. Soria. Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions 1500-1800. Baltimore, 1959: 264, 386, nt. 48.

1960

  • Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 26, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 168, repro.

  • López-Rey, José. Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Oeuvre. London, 1963: 331-332, pl. 114.

1964

  • Camón Aznar, José. Velázquez. 2 vols. Madrid, 1964: 435-437, repro. 436.

1965

  • Harris, Enriqueta. Review of Velázquez by José López-Rey, The Burlington Magazine 106 (1965): 426.

  • Sánchez-Cantón, Francisco J. Review of Velázquez by José López-Rey. In Gazette des Beaux-Arts 65 (1965): 127.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 134.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:204, color repro.

1968

  • López-Rey, José. Velázquez' Work and World. London, 1958: 94-95, pl. 133.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 121, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 122-123, color repro.

1974

  • Gudiol y Ricart, José. Velázquez: 1599-1660. Translated by Kenneth Lyons. London, 1974: 318, 339, no. 160, fig. 236.

1975

  • Harris, Enriqueta. "The Cleaning of Velázquez's Lady with a Fan." The Burlington Magazine 117 (1975): 319.

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 360, repro.

1979

  • López-Rey, José. Velázquez; the Artist as Maker. Lausanne and Paris, 1979: 92, 96, 99, 390, no. 81, pl. 166.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 63, pl. 45.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 242, no. 308, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 419, repro.

1986

  • Brown, Jonathan. Velázquez, Painter and Courtier. New Haven and London, 1986: color fig. 178.

1990

  • Velázquez. Exh. cat. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, 1990: no. 61, repro. 357.

  • Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 116-119, color repro. 117.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 85, repro.

1997

  • Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art, New York, 1997: 179, fig. 12-3.

1999

  • Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 34, color repro.

2001

  • Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 74-75, 210, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 171, no. 130, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q3207931

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