page_title: Portrait of a Noble Young Lady (Pourbus)
section_title: Identity of the sitter
hierarchical_section_title: Portrait of a Noble Young Lady (Pourbus) / Identity of the sitter
caption_attribution_description: English: a new portrait of Anna van Egmont?
context_page_description: Portrait of a Noble Young Lady is considered by many art historians, such as Paul Huvenne, former Director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, to be one of the best examples of Pieter Pourbus' portraiture.
  Huvenne writes about it that "[Pourbus] manages to lift the striking likeness that is expected of any portrait to an icon that radiates societal and spiritual values. In doing so, he endows the person depicted with a detached, but animated beauty that leaves no one unmoved".
context_section_description: In an article published during the painting's exhibition at the Museum Gouda in 2018, a critic, Marc Couwenbergh, describes this portrait as "the Mona Lisa of Pourbus".
  In a later article, Couwenberg raised the possibility that this could be the portrait of Anna van Bueren. With many details, he draws attention to many similarities to the portrait of Anna van Bueren in the Royal Collections in The Hague.
  No inscription or family crest is to be seen on the painting, and none could be found after infrared or X-ray examination. However, the infrared photos reveal mysterious marks on the upper left hand side of the painting, which suggest that a crest or symbol was perhaps present on this side at some point (see infrared photos 1 and 2 in gallery below). It is therefore not possible to identify with certainty the lady depicted, but her rich dress and distinguished appearance suggests that she was of considerable standing. Her dress and its distinctive lace collar allowed Huvenne, who discovered this painting in 2006, to date the portrait as having been painted before 1560.
  The infrared examination conducted before the exhibition in Bruges in 2017 confirmed Huvenne's hypothesis and revealed that Pourbus executed the portrait in 1554. Pourbus's signature, a monogram, two "P"s separated by the master's mark resembling the numeral "4", appears on the upper right hand side, together with the date 1554, four years before van Bueren died (see infrared photos 3 and 4 in gallery below).
caption: Anna van Bueren vs. Pourbus' Noble Young Lady
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