The Lady with a Fan (1640), Diego VelázquezThe Wallace Collection
This is a Lady with a Fan by Diego Velazquez, painted in 1640.
Velazquez possessed a remarkable technique in his use of oil paint, creating incredible illusions of reality characterized by its simplicity, dignity, restrained palette, and loose, impressionistic brushstroke.
Later in his career, Velázquez employed strokes and daubs that the eye can easily discern up close, and which make for images of extraordinary vitality. In these works, one can see the similarities to Impressionism.
Velázquez's brushstroke is loose, fluid, and utterly present on the canvas, as if in defiance of the picture's realism. He employed loose flurries of paint that create an astounding, realistic image from afar, but which upon closer inspection appear almost abstract.
Velázquez disdains to delineate precise contours, instead creating form out of pure color and light.
In addition to brushstroke, the chiaroscuro technique, is masterfully employed here, lending depth and volume to the figure.
It also accentuates the textural contrasts of the various materials—the softness of her skin, the sheen of her pearls, and the heavy quality of her garments. This work is a testament to his remarkable capacity for observation.
With a brilliant diversity of brushstrokes and soft harmonies of color, he achieved effects of form, texture, space, light and atmosphere that make him the main precursor of 19th century French Impressionism.
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