Portrait of a Woman

About the Artwork

How do you conserve a painting when portions are missing? The mid-treatment image (below) shows the painting after cleaning, when earlier restorations had been removed. In the painting on view, notice how the conservator reconstructed portions of the sitter’s lace collar and elaborate necklace. She re-created missing passages after studying the artist’s technique in other works and carefully emulating his treatment of the remaining lace and elements of the twisting, three-dimensional necklace. Conversely, there was not enough information to reconstruct what was probably another ornament at the back of the sitter’s head, so the decision was made not to speculate and invent something in that space.

Provenance

Dowdswell, London, United Kingdom (Durand-Ruel, Paris, France and New York, NY) -1916: Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade, Cleveland, 1902, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916. 1916-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

Quick Overview

Artist: Jan Anthonisz. van Ravesteyn (Dutch, c. 1570–1657)
Date: 1620s
Medium: oil on wood
Dimensions: Framed: 86.5 x 77.5 x 7 cm (34 1/16 x 30 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 53.2 x 45 cm (20 15/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
Accession no.: 1916.1055

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.