This portrait represents the artist's wife, Cathrine Jensen, née Lorenzen. The model's appearance is reproduced from a timeless perspective. Cathrine's right hand in front of her lap and the multi-coloured turban forming a halo around her head are quotations from canonical depictions of women within European art history, specifically from ancient statues of Venus holding her hands to modestly cover her bosom and sex, and the Renaissance painter Raphael's portrait of his mistress, La Fornarina, wearing a similar turban.
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