Portrait of a Woman

Frans Pourbus, the Elder (Netherlandish, 1545–1581)

1581

Medium/TechniqueOil on panel

Dimensions142.9 x 78.4 cm (56 1/4 x 30 7/8 in.)

Credit LineWilliam Sturgis Bigelow Collection

Accession number27.176

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsAE (interlocked) TA (interlocked) 19 upper right; dated 1581 upper leftProvenanceBy 1733, gallery of the Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna [see note]; 1918, removed from the gallery and taken to Schloss Valtice (Feldsberg), present-day Czech Republic; 1922, sold by the Princes of Liechtenstein to Glückselig (dealer), Vienna. William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 - d. 1926), Boston; 1927, bequest of William Sturgis Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 22, 1927)

NOTE: Information about the movement of the painting within the Liechtenstein collection and its sale in 1922 was provided by Gustav Wilhelm, Director of the Liechtenstein Collection, in a letter to the MFA of December 30, 1955. The painting bears a seal from the Liechtenstein collection that dates from 1733. It was included in the Katalog der fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Bilder-Galerie im Gartenpalais der Rossau zu Wien (1885), cat. no. 77.