Portrait of Marguerite Numan, wife of Philippe Haneton, with her five daughters and Saint Margaret

Bernard van Orley's Portrait of Marguerite Numan, wife of Philippe Haneton, documents the Brussels master's service to the Habsburg court administration through portraits of senior officials and their families. Philippe Haneton was a prominent secretary and diplomat in the Habsburg-Burgundian court, and his wife's portrait would have served the same dynastic record-keeping and social display functions as the portraits of higher nobility that Van Orley more typically received. The portrait demonstrates his ability to adapt the formal language of court portraiture to the dignified but less exalted social position of senior court officials.

The portrait is rendered with skilled technique characteristic of Bernard van Orley's best work. The tempera medium, applied in thin layers of egg-bound pigment over a prepared gesso ground, the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.