Portrait of Isabella Brant
Isabella Brant was Rubens’s first wife. He painted her many times in many different ways before she died at the age of 35 (she is a model for a nymph in the other work by Rubens in this room). This intimate portrait, painted at least five years before her death, suggests the close relationship between the painter and sitter through the warm palette, the luscious brushstrokes, and her lively expression.
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- framed: height 0.83 m, width 0.735 m, depth 0.09 m; unframed: height 0.53 m, width 0.46 m
- Origin
- Flanders
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Portrait Both · 99%
The museum classifies the work as a portrait, and the image presents a single sitter in a tightly framed head-and-torso composition.
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The title identifies Isabella Brant as the sitter, while the image shows one clearly individualized person rather than a group.
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Face Visual · 99%
The sitter’s face is the principal compositional and expressive focus, with close attention to the eyes, mouth, skin, and facial modeling.
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Eye Contact Visual · 97%
The sitter looks directly toward the viewer, making eye contact a prominent feature of the portrait.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 97%
Deep brown and nearly black tones dominate the background and clothing, contrasting with the lighter face, neckline, trim, and hand.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Both · 99%
The catalog classifies the work as a painting, and the image visibly consists of a painted surface with modeled color and brushwork.
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Oil Painting Both · 99%
The museum specifies oil on wood; the image shows layered tonal modeling and fluid handling consistent with oil paint.
Time Periods
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17th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The museum dates the work to approximately 1620–25, placing it in the seventeenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Flanders and Luxembourg Metadata · 96%
The catalog gives Flanders as the place of origin, corresponding to the catalog region Flanders and Luxembourg.
Materials
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Wood Metadata · 99%
The specified support is wood: the medium is recorded as oil on wood.
Source & rights
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640). Portrait of Isabella Brant. Cleveland Museum of Art.