The Lady with a Fan c. 1640

Diego Velázquez completed this oil on canvas portrait, titled 'The Lady with a Fan', sometime in the 17th century. The image encapsulates many of the conventions of court portraiture in Spain at that time, but also hints at the ways Velazquez challenged such conventions, particularly in his later works. This includes the understated and informal pose, which suggests a degree of intimacy between artist and sitter and the artist’s attention to the materiality of clothing. Consider also the way this work has been displayed and interpreted over time. Who was this woman and how can her status at court be inferred? By consulting inventories of the Spanish royal collection we can begin to reconstruct its institutional history and its shifting cultural meanings. A more socially engaged art history asks us to consider the lives of both artist and sitter, and also of its viewers.