A Woman (c.1435)

Campin, Robert (c.1378-1444)

A Woman
c.1435
Oil with egg tempera on oak, 40.6 x 28.1 cm
National GalleryLondon

This striking portrait of a woman forms a pair with Campin’s portrait A Man: the sitters were clearly married. We don’t know who they were, but their clothes suggest they were prosperous townsfolk, perhaps from Tournai where Campin lived and worked.

Campin has conveyed their personalities and relationship as well as what they looked like. The woman appears younger than her husband, and more forceful and optimistic. Campin has placed her near eye in the centre of her panel so that she dominates the composition in a way her husband does not. Her skin is smooth, and her bright, wide-open eyes curve up at the corners, a movement echoed and amplified by the crisp folds of her headdress. (NG)

Pair:

Campin, Robert (c.1378-1444)
A Man
c.1435
National GalleryLondon