Portrait of a Woman Aged Sixty
This vertical portrait painting shows a pale-skinned older woman wearing a full, long-sleeved black dress with a wide white ruff at her neck and white lace cuffs at her wrists. She sits in a curving, low-backed wood chair against a pale brown background. Her body and the chair are angled slightly to our left, and she looks directly at us. She has small eyes, pink, rounded cheeks, and a wide chin. Her lips are parted in a slight smile, and her hair is covered by a starched, sheer white cap that flares at the sides. The ruff around her neck is gathered in accordion-like, narrow figure-eight folds, and it extends flat and stiff, nearly to her shoulders. Close inspection reveals that the dress is woven with a black-on-black brocade pattern and has a line of small black buttons down the front. She holds a small brown leather book tooled with gold ornament in her right hand, on our left, and her other hand rests on the arm of the chair. She wears a gold ring on each hand. An inscription is painted to our left of her head: “AETAT SVAE 60 ANo 1633.”
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 102.5 x 86.9 cm (40 3/8 x 34 3/16 in.) framed: 142.4 x 126.7 x 15.2 cm (56 1/16 x 49 7/8 x 6 in.)
- Department
- CNE-B
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
-
Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The catalog title identifies the work as a portrait, and the image centers one individualized seated sitter presented for likeness.
-
Face Visual · 98%
The sitter’s face is the principal focal point, with detailed modeling of the eyes, cheeks, mouth, and chin.
-
Text Both · 99%
A painted inscription appears to the left of the sitter’s head and is transcribed in the catalog as “AETAT SVAE 60 ANo 1633.”
Visual Qualities
-
Dark Colors Visual · 97%
Deep black and brown tones dominate the dress, chair, and background, contrasted by the white ruff, cap, and cuffs.
-
Patterns Both · 96%
The dress visibly contains a black-on-black brocade pattern, which is also specifically noted in the catalog description.
Medium and Techniques
-
Oil Painting Metadata · 100%
The National Gallery of Art catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas.
-
Painting Metadata · 100%
The catalog classifies the object as a painting.
Time Periods
-
17th Century Art Metadata · 100%
The catalog dates the painting to 1633, placing it in the seventeenth century.
Furniture and Lighting
-
Chair Both · 98%
A substantial curving chair is clearly visible beneath and beside the sitter; the catalog describes it as a low-backed wood chair.
Source & rights
Frans Hals. Portrait of a Woman Aged Sixty. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.