Current knowledge
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) 755
Titian
Woman with a Mirror
Current measurements:
99cm x 76cm
Date:
c.1515
The work described by this entry presents a challenge for students of the collection. Here, we have matched it with the enigmatic Titian currently in the Louvre, but this is an uncertain association. One of the issues is that the Louvre’s Titian most probably formed part of the Mantua collection and it is therefore very unusual for Van der Doort not to have recorded it as such – he is dependable when it comes to Mantua provenance. The painting’s subsequent change in attribution from Parmigianino to Titian adds to the certainty (as does the fact that the courtesan is described as holding the looking glass in the Sale inventory). Also inventoried in conservation (WS 192, no 12)
Van der Doort 1639
Parmigianino
Italian Woman, with her naked arm dressing herself, a man holding a mirror, life-size, half-length
Sale Inventory c.1649-51
Walpole Society reference (1972):