Title: Portrait of a Woman Artist: Robert Campin, called the Master of Flémalle (Southern Netherlandish [born France], ca. 1375-1444) Date: ca. 1435 Genre: portraiture Movement: Northern Renaissance Medium: oil and egg tempera on panel Dimensions: 40 cm (15.7 in) high x 27 cm (10.6 in) wide Location: National Gallery, London, England, UK
This painting is one of a pair, together with Portrait of a Man, which hangs alongside it in the National Gallery. it is uncertain whether Campin painted them as separate companion pieces or (as is perhaps more likely) as wings of a diptych. The identity of the sitters is unknown: they have been variously interpreted as Flemish painter Quentin Matsys and his wife or as Rogier van der Weyden and his wife. The woman depicted here wears an elaborate arrangement of linen veils and is shown against a tightly fitted black background, giving her an appearance of three-dimensionality.
Robert Campin, known as the Master of Flémalle (born in Valenciennes, France; died in Tournai, present-day Belgium), was a master both of portraiture and of religious art. With his pupil Jan van Eyck, he was a key figure in the transition from the medieval International Gothic style to the more lifelike style known as Early Netherlandish.
