Portrait of a Seated Woman
Antonis Mor·c. 1565
Historical Context
Anthonis Mor's Portrait of a Seated Woman from around 1565 exemplifies the formal court portrait style that made him the most important international portraitist of the mid-16th century. Mor, who was born in Utrecht and worked for the courts of Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, created the template for aristocratic portraiture that would influence painters across Europe for generations. His portraits combine Netherlandish precision with the grandeur learned from Titian.
Technical Analysis
Mor's oil-on-panel technique, mounted on aluminum for conservation, demonstrates his characteristic precision in rendering costume details with Netherlandish thoroughness. The formal pose, controlled lighting, and meticulous fabric rendering exemplify the international court portrait style he defined.
Provenance
Sir Richard Worsley, Bart. (d. 1805), Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight, by 1804, as pendant to a Portrait of a Seated Man [Worsley 1804]; by descent to his niece Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Bridgeman, who in 1806 married Charles, 2nd Baron Yarborough (1781–1846; created Earl of Yarborough 1837), Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, and London [Waagen 1854 and 1857; for this descent, see Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 21, Oxford, 1973, p. 952; and Burke’s Peerage, 105th ed., London, 1970, p. 2893]; by descent to Charles, 4th Earl of Yarborough. Robert Langton Douglas, London [according to undated notes, Katherine Moore, Knoedler, to Barry Hannegan, North Carolina Museum of Art, copy in curatorial file]. Knoedler, New York, Oct. 1916 [notes cited above [according to notes cited above, this transaction had Knoedler stock number 13970, which is and with other numbers in a photograph of the reverse taken before the removal of the cradle]; Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh, July–Dec. 1918; Knoedler, New York, 1918 [notes cited above; this transaction had Knoedler stock number 14555]; sold to J. Horace Harding (d. 1929), New York, 1925 [Harding lent this portrait and its pendant to London 1927]; estate of Mrs. J. Horace Harding [With Knoedler from September to December 1937 (no. CA1151), and lent through Saint James O’Toole Galleries, New York, to the 1940–41 exhibition]; sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Mar. 1, 1941, no. 57, to Knoedler as agent for the Art Institute.
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