The Needlewoman
Diego Velázquez·c. 1640/1650
Historical Context
Velazquez's The Needlewoman, painted around 1640-1650, is an unfinished study that offers invaluable insight into the master's working process. The painting captures a woman absorbed in her sewing, rendered with the extraordinary economy of means that characterized Velazquez's mature style. The unfinished state reveals how he built up forms from broadly brushed areas of color, adding detail only where it served the overall pictorial effect — a revolutionary approach that anticipated modern painting by two centuries.
Technical Analysis
The partially finished state reveals Velazquez's technique of building form through broad tonal areas before refining with specific details. The head and hands are most fully realized, while the lower body dissolves into suggestive, broadly painted passages that demonstrate his remarkable painterly economy.
Provenance
In the artist's possession at his death, 1660. Probably Pierre-Armand-Jean-Vincent-Hippolyte, Marquis de Gouvello de Keriaval [1782-1870], Château de Kerlévénant, Sarzeau, Morbihan, Brittany.[1] Madame Christiane de Polès [d. 1936], Paris; sold 5 July 1926 to (Wildenstein and Co., Paris);[2] consigned to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[3] by whom purchased 9 March 1927;[4] purchased on same day by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[5] deeded 12 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The ownership of the painting by the Gouvello de Keriaval is given by August L. Mayer, _A Portrait by Veaézquez. Francisca Velézquez, Daughter of the Master (The Woman Sewing)_, (New York, c. 1935), 4. For a few facts about the collector, Hippolyte de Gouvello, see H. Frotier de la Messalière, _Filiations Brétonnes, 1650-1912_, (Saint-Briem, 1913): vol. 2, 570. [2] Noted in 14 September 1988 letter from Mrs. Ay-Whang Hsia, Vice-President of Wildenstein and Co., New York, NGA curatorial files. [3] The Knoedler stockbooks, kept at The Getty Provenance Index. [4] Noted in 14 September 1988 letter from Ay-Whang Hsia. [5] David Finley notebook, copy in NGA curatorial files (original notebook in Gallery Archives).
