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Portrait of Mrs. Leneve
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This woman’s heavily lidded eyes, fleshy chin, and slender fingers conform to 17th-century ideals of beauty, but when the museum acquired this painting in 1942, her features had been extensively overpainted to bring her more in line with modern standards of beauty. This later intervention included lowering the sitter’s eyebrows, reducing her prominent eyes and lips, and adding curls to make her forehead appear smaller. Mrs. Leneve now appears as the fashionable artist Peter Lely originally intended.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePortrait of Mrs. Leneve, c. 1657. Peter Lely (British, 1618–1680). Oil on canvas; framed: 157.5 x 132.5 x 13 cm (62 x 52 3/16 x 5 1/8 in.); unframed: 126.7 x 101.3 cm (49 7/8 x 39 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Otto Miller, 1942.247
