Pieter Nason

17th century Dutch portrait of a Lady in Red adorned with Pearls

1667

Portrait of a lady by Dutch Golden Age painter Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). Half-length, within a feigned oval, the lady wears a pearl necklace and earrings, an ivory silk gown adorned...

Circle of Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661), a 17th century portrait of a lady, bust-length oval, wearing an ivory silk gown with blue silk bows and lace c...

A 17th century English portrait of a lady by Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), half-length in a painted feigned oval, wearing a green silk gown with chestnut coloured cloak over one shoulder, her fair hair curled in the fashionable ringlet style of the period. Oil on canvas in an English giltwood 'Lely' frame. We are grateful to Diana Dethloff and Catharine MacLeod (who are currently working on a Lely catalogue raisonné) for their confirmation of Lely as the artist from photograph analysis of this previously unidentified early work. Provenance: Private collection Nottingham until 2021 Mellors and Kirk sale December 2000, lot 1173 The sitter is likely to have been from an upper class or aristocratic family in court circles, who were the main source of Lely`s patronage. The simple composition serves to highlight the beauty of the sitter through portraying her pale decolletage and complexion, set against the gentle gaze of her blue eyes, the soft blush of her cheeks and her full red lips. Peter Lely (1618-1680) was originally of dutch origin and became Principle Painter to the King in 1661, following in the footsteps of Van Dyck who had died in 1641. He dominated the portrait painting scene in England for over 20 years, creating a distinctive 'court look' in his work which had a strong influence on many other artists. He had an extremely successful and popular portrait practice which meant that he soon had to develop production methods that could accommodate the high demand for portraits, and also for copies and versions of them which were given as gifts to family and courtiers. The use of studio assistants was a common practice for busy artists and as with Van Dyck, Lely is known to have used specialist assistants to execute particular parts of his paintings. Artists who worked in Lely`s studio included John Baptist Gaspars who specialised in drapery painting, William Wissing, John Greenhill...

A rare pair of three-quarter length 'marriage' portraits by one of the foremost dutch portrait painters of the 17th century, Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634-1693 Amsterdam). The gentleman signed middle left 'Maes 1679'. Oil on canvas in dutch style ebonised frames. Dimensions 58 x 47.5cms each. The gentleman is shown in a landscape at dusk, leaning against a stone capital, wearing a white chemise decorated with lace, a black coat and a brown silk cloak draped across his body. The lady is elegantly dressed in an ivory silk gown decorated with jewels on the neckline and shoulders, the contrasting sleeves in gold fabric, with a rose pink silk cloak draped over her shoulder and bodice. She wears a pearl necklace and earrings with her fair hair worn up with ringlets falling down onto her chest in the fashionable style of the day. She stands with one hand touching a lock of her hair as she rests her arm on the bowl of a stone water drinking fountain...

Portrait of Mary Hammond in Sumptuous Attire, Jewels and Lace c.1618-22 Circle of Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661) This portrait of a lady, presented by Titan Fine Art, is an exquisite example of early seventeenth-century portraiture, remarkable both for the lavishness of its subject’s attire and for the distinguished provenance that has accompanied it across four centuries that adds a rich layer of historical significance. It was once part of the notable collection of Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (1628–1699) at Moor Park, a stately mansion in Hertfordshire. Temple was a diplomat, essayist, philosopher, and the patron of Jonathan Swift. He was a key participate at an important period in English history, helping not only to negotiate the Triple Alliance, but also the marriage between William of Orange and Princess Mary. His collection at Moor Park was well known in its day, reflecting both his cultivated taste in art and literature and his international connections. Its fabulous attire, rendered with almost microscopic attention, is not merely decorative but emblematic of a world in which visual display was a language of power. Its provenance, stretching from the English country house and Enlightenment scholarship to modernist circles, forms a microcosm of cultural exchange across four centuries. Thus, the portrait of Mary Hammond stands as both a masterpiece of early seventeenth-century craftsmanship and a witness to the grand narrative of collecting and connoisseurship—a testament to the enduring fascination of beauty, status, and history intertwined. By tradition the portrait depicts Mary Hammond (born c.1602), who was Sir William Temple’s mother, and the daughter of the royal physician who served James I, Dr John Hammond (c.1555–1617) and whose family owned Chertsey Abbey in Surrey. The woman appears between 18 and 25 years old, and Mary would be about 18–20 when the portrait was painted circa 1620, therefore this matches the apparent age of the sitter and the fashion perfectly. Mary stood at the intersection of learned/courtly and gentry worlds. On 22 June 1627 she married her first cousin (a common practice for consolidating family wealth and influence during that era.) Sir John Temple (1600-1677) at St Michael, Cornhill in the City of London. The couple resided nearby, at Blackfriars. Her marriage to Sir Temple placed her at the heart of the social and political circles that shaped British history. The couple had at least five children, and they became highly significant historical figures: The eldest son, Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, became a distinguished diplomat, statesman, and essayist, famous for his role in the Triple Alliance and as a patron and mentor to the writer Jonathan Swift – our portrait was in his collection. Their daughter, Martha Temple, later Lady Giffard, was a notable figure in her own right. She became her brother William's first biographer and a respected letter-writer, providing a rare female perspective on the events and high society of the time. Another son, also named Sir John Temple, became Attorney General for Ireland and was involved in the turbulent politics surrounding the English Civil War and the Act of Settlement in Ireland. Mary died in November 1638 after giving birth to twins and was buried at Penshurst, Kent. The family's connection to Penshurst Place is a major point of interest as this historic manor was the seat of the Sidney family, a major aristocratic and literary dynasty. The portrait was in the collection of the Mary’s son, Sir William Temple. From there it descended to his daughter, and then to her nephew, the Reverend Nicholas Bacon of Spixworth Park, Norfolk (his mother was Dorothy Temple who died in 1758). Indeed, by this time, many Temple relics were in the collection at Spixworth including the engagement ring of the illustrious Dorothy Osborne, Lady Temple, wife of Sir William Temple. The portrait thus linked two prominent English families—the Temples and the Bacons—for generations. It is listed in a Spixworth Park inventory of 27 October 1910 by the local collector and art historian, Prince Duleep Singh. He described it with characteristic precision as: “No. 69. Lady Half Length, body and face turned towards the sinister, hazel eyes upwards to the dexter, red hair dressed low and over the ears, a jewelled coronet behind, pearl ear-rings tied with black strings. Dress: black, bodice cut low and square, with lace all round the opening and over shoulders, sleeves with double slashes showing red lining and lace under, falling thin pleated lace collar, black strings tied behind it, a jewel suspended on a black string round the neck, and a double row of agate and silver beads all round to the shoulders. M. In brown veined stone frame. Age 30. Date c.1620. It is called ‘Dutch portrait from Moor Park, mentioned by Nicholas Bacon of Coddenham and Shrubland as a very valuable painting.’ A few years later, when Robert Bacon Longe’s executors sold the contents of Spixworth Park (19–22 May 1912), the portrait appeared as lot 262, described as: “A very valuable half-length portrait on panel, ‘Dutch Lady, with deep lace collar and pearl and amethyst necklace, pendant, and ear-rings, and auburn hair, with coronet’ Early Dutch School 1620.” Following this sale the painting entered the collection of David and Constance Garnett, prominent literary figures of the early twentieth century, before being gifted to Andre Vladimervitch Tchernavin by 1949, and subsequently passed by him to the present owners in 1994. The two great houses associated with the painting, Moor Park and Spixworth Park, further underscore its pedigree. Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, was among the grandest country estates of seventeenth-century England—its gardens famously redesigned by Sir William Temple himself and later influencing landscape design across Europe. Sir William's Temple's secretary was Jonathan Swift, who lived at Moor Park between 1689 and 1699. Swift began to write "A Tale of the Tub" and "The Battle of the Books" at Moor Park. Spixworth Park, near Norwich, was an Elizabethan country house in Spixworth, Norfolk, located just north of the city of Norwich. It was home to successive generations of the Bacon family, one of Norfolk’s most distinguished dynasties (later, the Bacon Longe family), who were considerable land owners (owning Reymerston Hall, Norfolk, Hingham Hall, Norfolk, Dunston Hall, Norfolk, Abbot's Hall, Stowmarket, and Yelverton Hall, Norfolk). Spixworth Hall and the surrounding parkland remained in the Longe family for 257 years until 1952, when it was demolished. Rendered with meticulous precision and sumptuous detail, the painting depicts an elegantly dressed woman—her poise, costume, and jewels all communicating a message of wealth, refinement, and social rank. Every brushstroke conveys an artist deeply attuned to the textures of luxury and the nuances of feminine dignity. The sitter’s attire is nothing short of magnificent. Her bodice and sleeves are fashioned from the finest black silk or satin, the fabric absorbing and reflecting light in equal measure, suggesting both depth and lustre. Around her shoulders lies an opulent lace ruff—a deep, radiating lace collar worked in such intricate detail that it testifies to both the artist’s technical skill and the sitter’s extravagant taste. Lace of this quality, especially Venetian or Flemish bobbin lace, was one of the costliest materials available in early seventeenth-century Europe, its weight worth more than gold, and was a marker of prestige that rivalled jewels in value. The painter has taken great care to delineate every loop and scallop of the lace, achieving an almost tactile realism. Pale skin was also a desired beauty standard, sometimes accentuated with contrasting black ribbons or strings. Her jewels amplify this display of affluence. Matching earrings and a delicate coronet or jewelled hair ornament with a feather adorn her hair, which is styled in the modest yet fashionable manner of the time. These details are far from decorative excess—they serve as visual emblems of social standing, refinement, and lineage. Portraits of this kind were statements of both identity and aspiration, intended to project a family’s prosperity and moral virtue to posterity. The portrait was most likely painted in London around 1618-1622. The low-cut, décolletage-revealing neckline was fashionable in the courts of England and France during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean eras (c. 1590s-1610s), this style did not prevail in the public fashion of the Low Countries at this time. This style of lace ruff — delicate needle lace with geometric openwork — was fashionable from c.1615 to 1622, and the jewelled caul (hair net) and lace edging over a stiffened coif are consistent with high-status English women’s portraiture between 1610–1620. The puffed sleeve slash and the use of pink satin beneath black velvet belong squarely to the late Jacobean...

Jacob Huysmans Flemish 1633 - 1696 Portrait of a Lady Oil on canvas Image size: 49 x 40 ¼ inches Gilt frame Huysmans was born in Antwerp and came to England during the reign of Charles II where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court.. The diarist Samual Pepys noted the artist as capable of a more exact likeness than Lely. Certainly the diarist records that by August 1664 in the circle of Queen Catherine...

Portrait of a noblewoman. Attributed to Carlo Ceresa. (1609 - 1679, Bergamo) Oil on canvas. Size cm 110x86,5cm with frame Around 1640. This portrait depicts a middle-aged woman with great realism, typical of Lombard and Bergamo painters in particular. Carlo Ceresa, probable author of this unsigned painting, had studied with Daniele Crespi...

Portrait of Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin (1746-1699), 17th Century by Jacob Ferdinand Voet (1639-1689) Large 17th Century Italian portrait o...