Focus on this artwork and analyze the The sitter.
The Lady with a Fan is an enigmatic portrait. Although most other Velázquez portraits are easily recognizable likenesses of the members of the Spanish royal family, their courtiers and court servants, the sitter in Lady with a Fan has not yet been convincingly identified; there is a lack of accurate documentary information about the portrait. The details of the costume suggest that the sitter for The Lady with a Fan could be Marie de Rohan, the duchess of Chevreuse (1600–1679), because she was dressed according to French fashion of the late 1630s. There one piece of evidence that Velázquez painted a Frenchwoman, a letter dated January 16, 1638, which stated that he once portrayed the exiled duchess of Chevreuse, who was then living in Madrid under the protection of Philip IV, after having escaped from France disguised as a man. But some experts argued that no resemblance could be discerned with other portraits of the duchess, and it was assumed that the costume of the woman in The Lady with a Fan revealed a Spanish tapada, which was a precursor to the majas of the 18th century.
French fashion exile duchess of Chevreuse Philip IV Spanish royal family maja sitter Spanish Marie de Rohan