Portrait of Louise de Halluin, dame de Cipierre
Corneille de Lyon·c. 1555
Historical Context
Corneille de Lyon's Portrait of Louise de Halluin, dame de Cipierre (c. 1555) exemplifies the intimate portrait formula this Netherlandish émigré developed in France. Settling in Lyon, then France's second city and a major commercial and humanist center, Corneille created small bust-length panels against plain colored grounds that were unlike anything being produced elsewhere in Europe. The format eliminated elaborate setting and costume symbolism in favor of an arresting directness. These miniature-scale portraits circulated as tokens of affection and alliance within French Renaissance court society, with Corneille's studio producing dozens of such panels for the nobility.
Technical Analysis
Corneille's technique is characterized by extreme delicacy and precision within a small format. The sitter's features are modeled with minute, careful strokes over a blue-green background that has become his signature. The simplicity of the format — no hands, no accessories, no elaborate setting — focuses attention entirely on the face.
Provenance
Dr. Paul Mersch, Paris, July 1912 [according to Max Friedländer’s authentication dated Berlin, July 3, 1912, on a photograph in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentie., The Hague]. Senateur Colin, Paris, by June 1913 [Kleinberger stock card, Department of European paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]; sold to Kleinberger, Paris, June 1913 [Kleinberger stock card cited above]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, for 30,000 fr., June 20, 1913 [Kleinberger stock card cited above]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1913;6 bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.
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