Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family

Around 1470 a painter in southern Germany, probably in Ulm, set a fly on this woman's headdress. It sits on the stiff white linen as if fooled by how real the folds look, though the fly is painted too, a small boast of skill. Her slim fingers point to a sprig of forget-me-nots, a flower linked with engagement and with remembrance. The gold letters at the top read GEBORNE HOFERIN, born a Hofer, which does not identify her, since Hofer was a common family name in the region. Around 1817 the panel was listed at Schloss Wallerstein in Bavaria as the work of the engraver Israel van Meckenem. It later passed with that collection to Prince Albert, and Queen Victoria gave it to the National Gallery in 1863, two years after his death, as he had wished.