A young girl reflected in a mirror, by Frans Floris

The black background of this painting dramatises the two young women’s faces in a highly intriguing manner, with an oily texture for the faces and a highly pointillist style for the hairstyles. The psychological depth of the young women’s gazes is evident, even though they are not directed towards the viewer. The gazes of the two young women – assuming there are two of them – seem to oscillate between determination and resignation, whilst not looking in the same direction.

This portrait captures the viewer’s attention through its visual ambiguity: is it a double portrait of sisters, or a portrait of a woman split in two by a mirror reflection? The iconographic composition is indeed unsettling. Portraits of sisters, whether twins or not, are not all that rare in European painting. Take, for example, the portrait of two sisters by Cornelis de Vos (Helsinki, Finnish National Gallery, Sinebrychoff Art Museum) or that by Alonso Sánchez Coello depicting the Infantas Isabel Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela, the sisters are depicted side by side, as perfectly equal. More original compositions are found in the work of Lucas de Heere, with a triple portrait of men – despite their feminine appearance – in profile (Wisconsin, Milwaukee Art Museum). These comparisons suggest that this is a portrait of a young woman with her reflection in a mirror – a sort of double portrait, perhaps of an analytical nature even before such a theory was formulated. The young woman presents herself, along with her double, in profile, in a more social context.

The open ruff is typical of the fashion of the 1560s, both in France and the Netherlands. This ruff is made of ruched fabric – a piece of fabric gathered or pleated – placed at the edge of the neckline of the wimple, a bodice covering the throat. As for this painting from the Northern School, the names of Frans Floris, Pierre Pourbus the Elder or Adriaen Thoomasz Key may be put forward.

The hypothesis that it was painted by Frans Floris is supported by the portrait of a woman, dated 1555, held at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The same luminosity of the flesh set against the black, the same pointillist treatment, this time on the ruffled trim. A Flemish artist deeply influenced by his stay in Italy, he helped to spread Italian influence in Antwerp. Within his prolific body of work, it seems difficult to determine exactly which parts he painted himself, as his studio was attended by over a hundred pupils, who were& probably also his collaborators, including Frans Pourbus, Martin de Vos… The portrait of a woman by Frans Pourbus the Elder, held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, which is executed in a similar style, dates from after our painting, as do all his other portraits.