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    Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens

    In few other places of Italy can one see equal magnificence, since in few places does one find the gold, silver, jewels, and draperies, and the rich dress that one sees here....

    Giovanni Battista Agucchi (1601) on Genoa

    Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria was a young Genoese from one of the leading patrician families, recently married and 22 years old at the time the work was completed. The imposing setting and the marchesa’s stately appearance leave little doubt that she is a person of wealth and status. The direction of her gaze and the perspective of the architecture indicate that the painting was meant to be hung high—significantly above the viewer.

    The lady’s head emerges like a lotus from the center of an elegant, platter-like ruff. Glowing satin, lace, and jewels set off her pinkened and powdered face, accentuated by a flowing red drapery and an elaborate hair ornament that crowns her carefully curled locks. The rich tones of the marble and stone edifice before which she stands, likely her family palazzo, add to the sense of limitless luxury.

    However refined her accoutrements may be, Rubens made his subject personable with an emergent smile and enormous, keen brown eyes. The marchesa’s self-possession also may have been engendered by the unusual freedoms upper-class women in Genoa enjoyed. Pope Pius II, while still a youthful secretary to a cardinal, commented that the city was a “paradise for women."

    Originally, the picture was even grander: a full-length portrait with a view into the distant landscape at the left. This made it more apparent that the setting is outdoors, on a terrace. A drawing of the painting (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) records its earlier appearance. During the 19th century, the canvas was cut down to its present state.

    The Spinola family, major art patrons in Genoa, derived their affluence from mercantile and banking enterprises. It was commonplace for families of means to consolidate their wealth through intermarriage—Brigida Spinola married her cousin Giacomo Massimiliano Doria in 1605. She became a widow in 1613 and later married Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, a senator of the Genoese republic who was also devoted to poetry and art collecting. Imperiale’s portrait by Rubens protégé Anthony van Dyck is also in the National Gallery of Art collection.  

    Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria also inspired Van Dyck’s portrait of another Genoese noblewoman, Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, another Gallery collection highlight.

     

    Sir Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, 1626, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.89

    A tall woman with pale white skin and a shorter man with brown skin stand on a terrace in this vertical, full-length portrait. At the center, the woman wears a voluminous, long-sleeved, black dress with a row of gold buttons down the bodice. She has a wide, gray ruffled collar at her neck and red ruffled cuffs at her wrists. Her brown hair is pulled back under a cap ornamented with rows of white pearls. She looks at us close-lipped down the bridge of her straight nose. She holds a sprig of orange blossoms in her right hand, on our left. The second person leans into the space from our right as he reaches to hold a crimson-red parasol over and behind the woman’s head. He is cleanshaven with short, dark hair and brown eyes. He wears an amber-yellow garment over a white shirt. Fluted columns rise along the right edge of the composition, and the terrace is enclosed with a low balustrade. Plants surround the woman's feet, and a distant landscape below a blue sky is visible to our left.

    Sir Anthony van Dyck, Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, 1623, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.92

    About the Artist

    The head and chest of a man with pale pink skin, a honey-blond beard, and curly, mahogany-brown hair around a receding hairline fills this vertical portrait painting. His body and head are tipped to our left and he looks at or toward us with olive-green eyes. He has a long, pointed nose with lines around the nostrils leading down to his sweeping mustache. His soft beard below is trimmed to a point. His full, salmon-pink lips are closed. Faint sage green shades the inner corners of his eyes and the dips at his temples, beneath a shiny, balding head. His brown locks float around his face as if lifted by a breeze. His shoulders are enveloped by a chocolate-brown cloak, probably fur, and a swipe of vivid white paint at the back of his neck suggests a high, white collar. The background is mottled with rust-red, copper, and gold. The portrait is loosely painted in some areas, especially the fur cloak and background.

    Anonymous Artist, Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1620, oil on panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.33

    Among most prolific, learned, and versatile painters of his day, Rubens was also famous as a courtier and diplomat, whose legendary tact and cultivation earned him the respect of royal courts across Europe.

    Rubens was born in Westphalia, Germany. His father Jan, a Calvinist, had moved his family there from their native Antwerp, a Catholic stronghold. Jan died when Rubens was nine, and his mother, Maria Pipelinckx, moved the family back to Antwerp, where they converted to Catholicism. There, Rubens received the finest classical education available. As a teenager, he was sent to the court at Brussels, where he was schooled in social graces and the ways of the aristocracy. Rubens learned Dutch, German, French, and read Latin (later adding English and Italian). He took up drawing, initially copying the works of famous artists. As his talent became evident, Rubens began formal training as an apprentice in several painters’ studios. Sweeping biblical scenes, mythological dramas, and portraits were favored subjects from the outset of his career.

    A woman with pale, peachy skin wearing elegant gold and ink-black garments sits in front of a stone portico in this vertical portrait painting. Her red armchair is angled to our right, but the woman turns to look at us under cocked brows. She has high, rosy cheekbones and a long straight nose. Her pink lips curve up in a smile framed by the faint suggestion of dimples. Her brown hair is pulled back under a gold band or net, and a gold earring hangs from the ear we see. Her gold dress has a fitted bodice with a line of buttons down the front and puffy, brocaded sleeves. She wears the bodice over a white chemise, which comes nearly to the double strand of pearls worn like a choker around her neck. Frothy white lace surges up to encircle the back of her neck, and more lace stretches back along her forearms from the cuffs of her gold dress. The black cloak she wears over the dress splits over the sleeves and flares up behind the neck, echoing the lace. A long gold chain weaves back and forth across the open front of the black cloak, which is patterned with black on black. The woman wears a ring on her right hand, which rests in her lap and holds a white flower. The cloak stops at the woman’s knees to reveal a gold and red striped skirt. The woman’s other hand, farther from us, rests along the arm of the chair and holds an ostrich' feather fan with a silver handle. A scarlet-red curtain in the upper left corner above the chair gives way to a view into a courtyard lined with a portico along the right side. The portico has three openings separated by wide, horizontally ribbed columns. Ornamental shells, creatures, and people are carved into the face of the portico, and bright green trees are just visible through the openings. Gray and white clouds sweep across a vivid blue sky around the woman’s head.

    Sir Anthony van Dyck, Isabella Brant, 1621, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.47

    Rubens completed his art education with a visit to Italy, where he remained from 1600-1608. He studied Renaissance painters in Venice, and also lived in Mantua, Rome, and Genoa. With letters of introduction to the Italian nobility, he was able to secure important commissions, painting portraits and works for private chapels and churches. He left Italy to attend to his dying mother in Antwerp and never returned.

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    Artist Information
    Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

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    Sir Peter Paul Rubens

    Exhibition Catalogue
    The Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting (National Gallery of Art, November 3, 1985-April 13, 1986)

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    Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the National Gallery of Art

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    Shown from the knees up, a woman with smooth, pale skin and rosy cheeks wears a satin gown and densely pleated, wide collar in this vertical portrait painting. She stands with her body angled to our left but turns to look at us from the corners of her luminous brown eyes. She has curved, black brows, a straight nose, and her strawberry-red, bow-shaped lips turn up in a slight smile. Her honey-brown hair is tightly curled under an elaborate pearl, gold, and feather headdress in the shape of a bouquet of flowers. The pearl earring in the ear we can see rests against the lace-edged ruff, which presses up against the back of her head and extends to the width of her shoulders. She wears a long-sleeved, champagne-white satin gown trimmed with gold and jewels. A white satin cloak with amber-gold lining falls open from the elbow of each sleeve. The cuffs are edged with layers of narrow lace, and she holds a mostly closed fan in her right hand, farther from us. Both arms hang by her sides. Behind her head and shoulders, cranberry-red drapery billows down from above over forest-green marble columns. Light shines from our left, illuminating a brown pillar and mantel behind the woman, along the left side of the canvas.

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria, 1606, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.60

    Back in northern Europe, Rubens became court painter to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella. He established a large and prosperous studio in Antwerp undertaking numerous commissions to adorn churches whose artworks had been destroyed during the Protestant iconoclasm. His patrons allowed him to accept commissions from foreign courts, including that of Maria de’ Medici of France, as well as nobles in Spain, Germany and England. He married Isabella Brant in 1609 and he bought a house in 1610 that he transformed into an Italianate palace which he declared a “temple of art” (and can be visited today as a museum).

    Rubens trained other painters, among them, Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish compatriot who painted a portrait of Rubens’ wife, Isabella Brant. In addition to painting, Rubens was a printmaker and designer of tapestries. For his diplomatic role mediating between Spain and England as well as artistic achievements, he was knighted by King Charles I. Several years after the passing of his beloved Isabella Brant in 1626, Rubens married Hélène Fourment, 15-year-old daughter of an Antwerp tapestry merchant, with whom he fathered additional children. The two eventually retired from public life to a country estate, where he painted a number of landscapes. Rubens died in 1640 and is interred in the Church of Saint Jacques in Antwerp.

     

    Other Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens
    in the National Gallery of Art Colleciton

    From high above the earth, we look onto a dramatically lit scene with a man falling from a horse-drawn chariot in midair, surrounded by eleven women against a bank of clouds in this horizontal painting. All of the people have pale skin and are illuminated by a bright burst of sunlight streaming across the scene from the upper right corner. The man is covered only by a burgundy-red sash that wraps across his groin and around one shoulder. He careens headfirst from the U-shaped, golden chariot with his chest facing us, arms flung overhead and legs splayed, to our right of center. The tumble of bodies around him includes four horses, three ivory white and one gray, and the eleven women, who are either nude or dressed in robes of parchment white, tan, slate blue, butterscotch yellow, steel gray, or rose pink. The women all have blond or brown hair, and some have wings like butterflies, patterned with circles and stripes. They fall alongside the man or float above the wreckage, their robes and hair billowing. Some of the women hold the red reins of the horses, though some of the reins stop abruptly or are painted over so they appear as dark lines beneath the surface. The nickel-gray clouds surround and support some of the women in front of a hazy circular arch curving up the left side of the composition. Peeks of sky around the action are deep aqua blue, and vibrant orange flames lick up from the earth in the lower right.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608
    Shown from the shoulders up, a man and woman face our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman is situated closer to us so she overlaps the man, whose profile is shifted to our left. The woman’s eye we can see is brown and she looks ahead from under a gently arched eyebrow. She has a pale skin with faintly blushed cheeks, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her reddish-gold hair is pulled back into a loose knot at the base of her head, and tendrils fall down her neck. Her hair is braided across the crown of her head, which is encircled with a string of pearls and adorned with a red jewel over her forehead. Gossamer-white fabric wraps around the base of her long neck. The man behind her and to our left has a more tan complexion. He looks ahead with brown eyes under lowered eyebrows. He has a long, bumped nose and his pink lips are closed. He has auburn-brown hair and wears a burgundy-red robe around his shoulders. The pair occupy a shallow space behind a stone ledge that runs along the bottom edge of this composition. The light that illuminates them from the front creates a halo-like effect on the midnight-blue background behind them. The number
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Agrippina and Germanicus, c. 1614
    A nearly nude, muscular man with pale, peachy skin sits in an underground cave among seven male and two female lions in this horizontal painting. The man sits to our right of center with his legs crossed, elbows close to his body with hands clasped by his chest. His head tips back to look up through a small opening above. He has long, wavy, chestnut-brown hair and dark eyes. A white cloth wraps across his hips, and he sits on a scarlet-red swath of fabric draped up over a rock next to him. The nine lions stalk, sit, or lie down around the man. One male lion next to the man, to our left, opens his mouth with his head thrown back, curling tongue extended beyond long fangs. A human skull and other bones are strewn on the dirt ground close to us. The rocky cave curves up around the animals and man to a narrow, round opening showing blue sky above.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Daniel in the Lions' Den, c. 1614/1616
    A bearded man with copper-blond hair and flushed, peachy skin stands on a stone-gray pedestal and gestures toward a group of five more men gathered before him in this square painting. Some of the men are light-skinned, others are tan. The man on the platform, Decius Mus, stands with his ruddy face turned to our right in profile, his muscular right arm raised and right foot extended. He wears a knee-length toga, and form-fitting armor covers his torso. A sword hangs from his waist, and a scarlet-red cape flaps behind him. Piled against the pedestal in the lower left are spears, battle axes, a silvery-gray shield covered with gold lightning bolts, and an ornate crested helmet. In the upper left corner, an eagle with one wing extended hovers behind Decius Mus’s head, clutching long peach and straw-colored strands in its talons. The other five men stand clustered together on the ground to our right, facing Decius Mus. They are also bearded and muscular, and each holds a golden staff topped with a different symbol. They wear knee-length tunics and cloaks in brick red, olive green, black, or tan, and three wear armor protecting their upper bodies. Calf-high, brown boots cover their feet but leave their toes exposed. The man closest to us has gray hair and stands with his back to us. A parchment-brown animal skin speckled with brown spots covers the back of his head and wraps around his armor and tunic. The man just beyond him, to our left, faces us and holds a gold staff topped with an eagle set within a round laurel wreath. The rest of the men stand in profile, filling the right side of the composition, and they lean in toward Decius Mus. Two of them wear crested helmets, one olive green, the other charcoal gray, both with gold ornamentation on the front. The man in the gray helmet holds aloft a flag painted with vertical swipes of scarlet red and ginger brown. A sketchily painted landscape beyond the group has trees with dark brown trunks and sage-green leaves along the left edge, leading back to a line of trees in the distance. Rolling, teal-blue land along the horizon could be hazy mountains. The powder-blue sky above is scattered with butter-yellow and light gray clouds. The scene is loosely painted, especially in the costumes and background.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Decius Mus Addressing the Legions, probably 1616
    Shown from the waist up, an elderly man with pale, peachy skin, wavy, silvery-gray hair, and a long beard stands facing our right, almost filling this vertical painting. He wears a butterscotch-gold robe and clutches two large skeleton keys the length of his forearm in his right hand while his other fist rests at his waist. One key is iron gray and the other is copper colored. The man’s balding, high forehead slopes down to thick black brows arching over deep-set, hazel eyes that gaze upward. He has a long nose, pale pink mouth, and hollows under his high cheekbones. He is brightly lit from the upper left against an ink-black background. The strong light creates shadows in the folds of his garment and on his craggy features.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Studio of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Peter, c. 1616/1618
    Shown from the chest up, a man with peach-colored skin sits in profile facing our left with downcast eyes in this vertical painting. He has a chestnut-brown beard and hair, brown eyes under thick brows, a slightly bumped nose, and pale, coral-pink lips. His nose and cheeks are tinged with pink. His robe is vibrant rose pink over the shoulders and scarlet red over his arms. The two colors are separated by a band of gold fringe. A bright, zigzagging line along the neckline could be a necklace or the edge of a white collar. He holds a lidded vessel near his left shoulder, closer to us. One hand tips the lid off the rounded bowl held in his other hand, which is cut off by the bottom edge of the canvas. The cup and lid are embellished with a row of bulging bosses around their edges. Inside the vessel is a glimpse of rounded, dark brown objects. The man is lit from the upper left, and the background is a mottled olive green and ginger brown.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Studio, Head of One of the Three Kings: Melchior, The Assyrian King, c. 1618
    This horizontal painting shows a tapestry being unfurled and held up by winged, baby-like putti against a structure with gray and gold columns, seen at the edges of the composition. Taking up most of the composition, the tapestry shows two ranks of men, women, and children gathered behind two central men, who meet at the center. All the people have light or tanned skin, and the bodies we can see are muscular. In the central pair of men, the one to our left, Abraham, faces our right in profile as he holds two loaves of bread. He has a brown beard and short, wavy hair, and dark brows over a prominent nose. He looks at the other man with dark eyes and leans toward him, to our right. Abraham wears an armored breastplate over silver chainmail edged with gold, which falls to mid-thigh. A crimson-red cape wraps around his shoulders and swirls around his back. A sword hangs by his hip, and tan sandals cover his heels and shins. Behind him are seven men and one brown horse, who gnaws at its foreleg. Most of the men are bearded and five wear armored helmets. A cleanshaven man wearing a lavender-purple tunic stands with his arm slung over the horse’s neck, holding the rein between thumb and forefinger. The man to our right, Melchizedek has a long white beard and short white hair. His red cap is encircled with a wreath of dark green leaves. He wears a long-sleeved, waist-length, aquamarine-blue garment over a white skirt. A heavy, golden-yellow cape with a broad, white fur collar and lining drapes over his shoulders, and is supported by at least one attendant. Behind and around Melchizedek are eight men, women, and children, standing near stone, gray ruins. Behind Melchizedek, one portly person wearing a dark pink mantle reaches into a basket of bread held across the shoulders of a blond, bearded, bare-chested man. Closer to us, in the lower right corner of the tapestry, one man wearing a green toga and another wearing blue kneel and sit, holding oversized silver and gold urns, the size of their torsos. The man in blue, to our right, turns to look at us over his shoulder. A third large urn sits near the other man. A view into the landscape with a low, green hill and a pale blue sky is glimpsed between the groups. The tapestry showing this scene curls over at the edges where the pudgy angels lift the top edge. The top right corner of the tapestry wraps around the edge of an unseen feature of the building, next to a gray column that rises the height of the painting up along the right edge. The border of the tapestry is rose pink with stylized gold designs. One putto with brown hair holds up the left corner, and one with light gray hair holds up the middle one arm slung over the front of the tapestry. The third putto, with blond hair, hooks an arm over a leafy garland with fruit that hangs from the cornice near the top center of the composition.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, c. 1626
    A seated woman with an infant on her lap and three children are clustered on a terrace overlooking green hills and a body of water in this square painting. They all have pale skin with flushed cheeks. The group is centered in the composition, and the woman sits to our left, facing our right, almost in profile. The wooden chair is upholstered in scarlet-red fabric and a large slate-blue bird perches on the backrest. Gold-edged, red drapery hangs behind the woman, suspended from stone columns on either side of her. The woman’s brown hair is covered by a frilly, silvery-gray cap with a matching shawl layered over a short, three-quarter sleeve jacket. Her fern-green skirt, covered with a pattern of coral-red flowers and gold vines, gleams in the soft light coming from behind us. A thin black band encircles her neck, and a round, black earring dangles from the ear we can see. She bows her head slightly and gazes down at the children. The infant lies across her lap with its head coming toward us, its chubby arms reaching up to the woman while turning to look at the three standing children. They appear to be a young boy and two girls, and they all have blond hair, large brown eyes, and delicate rose-red mouths. They crowd together at the woman’s knees. The boy is taller than the girls and stands behind them, visible from the shoulders up. He is dressed in red garments and stands almost in profile to gaze up at the woman. The girls turn their heads to look directly at us. At the center of the trio, the taller girl wears a long, voluminous brown gown. Her hair is pulled back and long ringlets frame her face. She also wears round black earrings and two delicate black cords around her neck, one of which holds a gold ring. At the front, the shortest girl wears a black and white gown with a sheer neckerchief along neckline, and she rests one arm across the woman’s lap. The girl’s long, puffy, black sleeves are slashed to create openings for white fabric to show through. Her hair is also upswept with ringlets framing her face. To the right of the group is a column made of two creatures with pink female heads, faces, and nude torsos with scaly, olive-green, twisting, snake-like legs. One creature faces us and the other faces our right. The sky beyond the terrace is filled with clouds that transition from slate gray at the top to tan and rust orange where it meets the distant hills.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens (and possibly Jacob Jordaens), Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and Her Children, 1629/1630, reworked probably mid 1640s
    A man and woman greet each other at the center of a group of about a dozen people set within a landscape in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale, peachy skin. In the middle of the crowd, a woman, Abigail, kneels to our left while a man to our right, David, reaches out to her. Abigail’s blond hair is tied back under a white veil that drapes over her shoulders, and she wears a slate-blue dress and a string of pearls around her neck. She holds her left hand, on our right, to her chest and her other hand gestures down to a basket of bread held by a man in the lower left corner of the painting. David stands and bends toward Abigail as he cups her bent elbow with his left hand. His other hand rests on a walking stick near her head, and his index finger is extended as if to brush her cheek. He has short, curly blond hair and beard, and he wears a thigh-length tunic under a breastplate. Crimson-red fabric drapes around his shoulders and over his armor, and a dagger or short sword hangs at his hip. Three women, three men, and a donkey gather to our left, behind Abigail. Two of the men hold large baskets of bread, and they all look toward Abigail and David. Six armored men, two younger people, and two horses make up the group to the right. Trees line a hill behind the people to our left and dark gray and amber-colored clouds fill the sky.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Meeting of David and Abigail, c. 1630
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Battle of Nude Men
    Drawn with red and black chalk on cream-colored paper, a satyr has a man’s muscular upper body and the legs of a goat as he lies sprawled on his back across the width of this horizontal sheet. He lies with his head to our right and hooves to our left. His right arm, farther from us, is flung over his head and with that hand, he touches the sheep’s skin on which he reclines. The sheep’s head rests near the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr’s eyes are blank under lowered, deeply furrowed brows. His nose is bumped over the bridge and pointed at the end. His full lips are open to reveal his tongue and lower teeth over a cleft chin. A mustache or goatee is loosely drawn, and hollows in his cheeks suggest high cheekbones. A wine skin, like an oversized hot water bottle, is tucked under the hollow of his lower back. His left arm, closer to us, lies along the side of his body, and he holds a pan flute in that brawny hand. He has the furry haunches of a goat, and his legs are splayed so his hooves reach into the upper and lower left corners of the sheet. A grapevine with a few clusters of fruit curls behind his lower limbs and meanders across the background. Gray washes and sketchy lines are layered behind the vine. A tiny uppercase “R” appears to be penned near the lower right corner. Lower in that corner, a round stamp has a crown over an uppercase “W” above the letters “JCR.”
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Pan Reclining, possibly c. 1610
    Drawn with black chalk with white highlights on beige paper, a male lion with a full, wavy mane looks out toward us on this nearly square drawing. He stands with his body angled so his rump is farther away, to our right, but his head faces us, his eyes looking slightly off to our right. His front paws are together and his back feet slightly separated with his tail curled loosely down between his legs. The bottoms of the lion’s feet are cropped by the edge of the paper. His mane touches the top edge and his haunches nearly reach the right edge of the paper, so he fills the sheet. White chalk highlights the lion’s left eye, nose, and closed lips. A few other touches of white appear on his mane and his left shoulder, on our right.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Lion, c. 1612-1613
    Lightly sketched with faint, silvery gray lines and areas of white chalk against tan-colored paper, the face, shoulder, and one arm of a young woman with smooth skin looks over her shoulder to our right in profile in this vertical drawing. She looks up through her eyelashes with her head tipped slightly away from us. She has a straight nose and parted, full lips. Wavy lines suggest hair framing her face and falling to her shoulders. Her hair may be tied with a ribbon that lies over her left shoulder, farther from us. A few strokes in white chalk suggest a puffed sleeve over that shoulder. The sleeve, drawn lightly with black chalk, is rolled back to her elbow, and her hand rests in front of her chest over a curve, though the object on which her fingers rest is not drawn. The paper has a few spots, marks, and small stains.
    Works by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art collection

    Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Young Woman in Profile, c. 1613

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