MEMLING, Hans
(b. ca. 1440, Seligenstadt, d. 1494, Bruges)

Portrait of an Old Woman

1470-75
Oil on wood, 35 x 29 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Memling excelled in portraiture: he had the gift of searching deeply into reality, as he did in this portrait in the Louvre, in which the face stands out before a carefully detailed landscape. Though rather worn in places, this painting has retained its harmony of whites and greys.

The companion-piece of the painting, Portrait of an Old Man, is in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin.