Portrait of a lady, believed to be Anna de Bourgeois (d. 1636), three-quarter-length, in a black dress with a fan, seated

Cornelis de Vos was one of Antwerp's most prominent portrait painters between 1620 and 1635. He was known for works such as this, portraits of Antwerp's upper classes dressed in finery and placed in elegant settings. The coat of arms on the column at the upper left identifies the sitter for this portrait as a member of the Bourgeois family, most likely Anna de Bourgeois, who died in 1636 (K. van der Stighelen, De portretten van Cornelis de Vos, 1990, pp. 214-7). Anna married twice, first to Michiel Boot (d. 1629), Lord of Sempeke and burgomaster of Antwerp, and second to Georges Uwens (d. 1643), Lord van Sint-Laureins-Berchem and member of the Brabant government. Her husbands' status reflects that of her own family in the southern Netherlands and both her dress and the nature of the brushwork suggest a date in the early to mid 1630s. A second inferior version of this portrait was with William Drown in London in 1948 and was most likely a studio replica.