Art, literature & history
Seated Woman Searching for Fleas
c. 1671
- Dating
- Approximate date range
- Held at
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Medium
- red chalk over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1966.239
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Adriaen van de Velde. Seated Woman Searching for Fleas. The Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0 1.0. Compressed full-frame reproduction.
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
About this artwork
Seated Woman Searching for Fleas — Adriaen van de Velde. c. 1671.
Medium: red chalk over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink. Dimensions: Sheet: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.).
Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Born into a prominent family of Dutch marine painters, Adriaen van de Velde was admired as a landscape painter. He specialized in atmospheric pastoral scenes that feature livestock and rustic figures drawn from life. This intimate study of a shepherdess searching for fleas exemplifies the artist’s skilled use of red chalk to capture the effects of light and shade.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.