Brooklyn Museum: American Art: Portrait of a Woman

18:33 01/07/2009

I am creeped out by the position of her neck and head--but that's to be expected with early American portraiture, right?

posted by

erin_trying

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Portrait of a Woman

An X radiograph of this portrait reveals a compositional change invisible to the naked eye: the elimination of an elaborate blue drape that initially hung from the sitter's right shoulder and wrapped around her waist. It is impossible to say if the change was made at the sitter's request or was the decision of Robert Feke alone. Self-taught and remarkably talented, the Long Island-born Feke excelled at describing the rich satins and laces that served to demonstrate the wealth and status his sitters.

Artist: Robert Feke, American, ca.1707-ca.1752
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: 1748
Dimensions: 49 3/8 x 39 9/16 in. (125.4 x 100.5 cm)
Signature: Unsigned
Collections: American Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, American Landscape/Colony to Nation, 5th Floor
Accession Number: 43.229
Credit Line: Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Museum Purchase Fund
Image: X-ray, CONS.43.229_1989_xrs_detail15.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1989

Collections: American Art: Portrait of a Woman