''Woman Holding an Apple'', also known as ''Portrait of a Lady'', is an oil painting by
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, made in around 1550, which hangs in the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, D.C.
Description
The subject stands at three-quarter length, turned to the left, looking at the spectator. She has long
blonde hair
Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...
and
fair skin
Light skin is a human skin color that has a base level of eumelanin pigmentation that has adapted to environments of low UV radiation. Light skin is most commonly found amongst the native populations of Europe and East Asia as measured through ...
, and holds an apple in her hands. She wears a green robe, with jewelled border, over a white dress with long sleeves and gold border.
Analysis
In 1940, it was published in ''
The Art News'' as "Portrait of a Lady in Green, presumably Giulia di Gonzaga-Colonna, Duchess of Traeetto". In 1941, the Duveen Brothers titled it "Portrait of Giulia di Gonzaga-Colonna
resumed. The tentative identification with the Italian noblewoman
of that name is not accepted today, and cannot be sustained with any historical source. Indeed, it may not represent a particular woman in the traditional sense of portraiture, but rather an idealised form of female beauty. The model may be Lavinia, Titian's daughter, who is known to have posed for several of his pictures.
[''Preliminary Catalogue'' 1941, p. 198.]
See also
*
List of works by Titian
This incomplete list of works by Titian contains representative portraits and mythological and religious works from a large oeuvre that spanned 70 years. (Titian left relatively few drawings.) Painting titles and dates often vary by source.
Lis ...
References
Sources
* Duveen Brothers (1941).
Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America'. New York: William Bradford Press. pp. 1953–1954, nos. 155–157.
* Frankfurter, Alfred M. (16 March 1940)
"Great Renaissance Portraits: A Unique Exhibition of Twenty-five Italian Masterpieces" ''The Art News'', 38(24): pp. 7–9, 21.
* Morassi, Antonio (1967).
"Titian". In ''Encyclopedia of World Art''. Vol. 14. London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. col. 146.
* "403. Portrait of a Lady (Giulia di Gonzaga-Colonna ?)".
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture'. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1941. pp. 197–198, no. 403.
* "Portrait of a Lady".
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection'. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1945. p. 125.
''National Gallery of Art''. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
{{Authority control
1550s paintings
Paintings by Titian