Major Work by Lavinia Fontana discovered in French Museum

The painting was previously attributed to the Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Pourbus (1523–84), but upon further study, the work was reattributed to Lavinia Fontana.

The oil on canvas painting was bequeathed to the Douai Museum in 1857 by Doctor Énée-Aimé Escallier. It has since been attributed to Pieter Jansz. Pourbus (Gouda, circa 1523 – Bruges, 1584), a Flemish Renaissance painter. This painting depicts a father dressed in black, carrying a ruff, sitting in an armchair, and his daughter, also wearing a ruff collar and dressed in the same color, holding out some flowers. In the background, a servant draws back a curtain to place a basket of fruit. After careful consideration, Philippe Costamagna, curator of the musées Fragonard, formally recognized the brushwork of Lavinia Fontana in this work.

Lavinia Fontana (Bologna, 1552 – Rome, 1614) grew up in a scholarly environment and learned to paint from her father, the successful Mannerist artist Prospero Fontana. Known primarily for her portraits, she also painted large altarpieces and small devotional paintings, as well as rare mythological scenes. Married in 1577 to the painter Gian Paolo Zappi, who renounced his art to become her agent, she received commissions from Popes Gregory XIII and Clement VIII and for the royal monastery of El Escorial in Spain. Settling in Rome in 1603, she was the first woman painter elected to the Academy of Saint Luke.

Main Image: Lavinia Fontana, Portrait d'un gentilhomme, sa fille et une servante, N° inv. 298. ©Ville de Douai, musée de la Chartreuse / Photographe : Claude Thériez