The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Portrait of a woman with light skin tone from the shoulders up, turned and looking slightly to our left against a medium-light blue background. She has blue eyes, her small lips pressed in a straight line, and wispy red hair showing from under pearl and jewel bands of a head covering, transitioning into dark fabric hanging down her back and the same color as her dress. Pearls line the dress's square neckline, a sheer, gold-embroidered band running across her chest.

Portrait of a Woman

c. 1540

Corneille de Lyon

(Netherlandish, 1500/10–1574)
Netherlandish, active France, 16th century
oil on wood
Framed: 39 x 26 x 5 cm (15 3/8 x 10 1/4 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 16.5 x 14.8 cm (6 1/2 x 5 13/16 in.)
Gift of Grace Rainey Rogers in memory of her father, William J. Rainey 1942.48
Location: 114 Late Northern Renaissance

Did You Know?

Gold leaf was applied to the details of the sitter’s headdress and embroidery on her dress.

Description

Corneille de Lyon worked both for the French court and wealthy merchants. His distinctive northern style stood in contrast to the taste for Italian Renaissance painting and connected closely to portrait miniatures and manuscript painting. Recent conservation treatment has restored the smooth, enamel-like background and the meticulous rendering of detail.
  • This well-preserved and exquisitely painted portrait is executed in oil paint on an oak wood panel primed with a lead white–containing ground layer. The grain of the wood, which runs horizontally, has telegraphed through to the ground and paint layers. An infrared reflectogram (IRR) reveals a delicate underdrawing in a dry medium. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements of the beautiful blue background reveal major intensities of copper that is indicative of azurite. Jewels in the headdress and clothing are embellished with gold leaf.
  • Lancaster, Lisbon.
    Grace Rainey Rogers, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
  • Francis, Henry. "Paintings in the Rogers Gift." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 4 (April 1942): 66-67 Mentioned: p. 66 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 409 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 102 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 102 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 62; Mentioned: p. 63
  • 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Woman|url=false|author=Corneille de Lyon|year=c. 1540|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.48