Portrait of Louise de Halluin, dame de Cipierre
c. 1555
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
21.4 × 17.8 cm (8 7/16 × 7 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16324
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this portrait of a maid of honor to Catherine de’ Medici, wife of Henry II of France, the sitter wears a fashionable dress of the mid-1550s. Her jewelry—a gold chain around her narrow waist, a pearl necklace, and a band of pearls on her hood—harmonizes with the rich, yet restrained ornamentation of her dress and embroidered white chemise. Louise de Halluin was still an unmarried attendant of the queen when she sat for this portrait. Corneille de Lyon’s small, keenly observed portraits of cour...
About the Artist
Corneille de Lyon · 1533–1575
Corneille de Lyon, born around 1500 in The Hague in the Netherlands, emerged as one of the premier portraitists of the French Renaissance after settling in Lyon by 1533. A Netherlandish artist who became naturalized as a French citizen in 1547, he quickly rose in prominence, serving as official painter to the Dauphin (later Henry II) from around 1540 and continuing under Henry II and Charles IX as...