Ellen Maurice (1578–1626)
Medium
Oil on oak
Dimensions
35 5/8 × 29 1/4 in. (90.6 × 74.2 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Theodocia and Joseph Arkus and University Place Foundation Gifts; Gift of Victor G. Fischer, by exchange; Marquand Fund; Elizabeth and Thomas Easton Gift, in memory of their mother, Joan K. Easton; Gift of Mary Phelps Smith, in memory of her husband, Howard Caswell Smith, by exchange; and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund, 2017
Accession Number
2017.249
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant portrait of Ellen Maurice, in 1597 by Marcus Gheerts the Younger, captures sitter at around age 19 during the late Elizabethan era. Gheeraerts, a leading London portraitist of Flemish origin, was renowned for his refined depictions of the English gentry and court circles under Queen Elizabeth I. Oak panels like this one—measuring 35⅝ × 29¼ inches—were a favored medium for such intimate, durable works, allowing fine detail in oils that brought faces and fabrics to vivid life. Ellen Maurice (1578–1626), likely from a prosperous family, gazes confidently out, her attire and pose ref...