#3981_”Eleanor of Toledo,” after Bronzino

This one-of-a-kind unframed original pencil and ink drawing was created by New Orleans artist Emilie Rhys, from a photograph of the painting, on December 23, 2014 at the Hotel Elysee in New York City.

The artist, while visiting NYC on vacation, often sat in the hotel library and chose a book with photographs of art or historic photographs from which to draw. There is a long history of artists turning for inspiration to the work of their predecessors, creating copies or interpretations of well-known masterworks.

In this case, the original artwork is the "Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo" by the Italian artist Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino, finished ca. 1539-40. One of several paintings he created of the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici (a keen businesswoman herself), this one is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.