John Vanderbank

Portrait of a Lady

1739

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...

Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, wearing a blue silk gown, seated in a classical interior, with her daughter in a pink gown standing beside her holding a sprig of blossom. T...

Portrait of the Hon. James Thynne (c. 1680-1704), full-length, in the gardens of Longleat House, seated beside a fountain, holding a shell beneath water spouting from a horn blown by a cherub on a dolphin. A glimpse of part of Longleat House can be seen upper left. Oil on canvas in a period giltwood frame, decorated with leaves and acorns. C. 1682. Dimensions: 145 x 123cm (57 x 48in) in frame Provenance: Ex Longleat House, Wiltshire Private collection, Bath James Thynne was the youngest son of Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth and Frances Finch of Longleat House, Wiltshire. He died in his youth and his Aunt, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720), wrote a moving poem on his death. He was buried in the family vault at Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire. A mezzotint of this painting by William Faithorne the Younger is held in the Royal Collection. Johann Kerseboom (d.1708) was the nephew of Frederick Kerseboom and first worked in Germany before coming to England in the 1680's where his sitters included the 'Electress Sophia Dorothea' (known from a mezzotint by William Faithorne). His early works were influenced by William Wissing...

Portrait of a young girl, full-length, wearing a blue silk gown, standing on a terrace beside a classical urn holding a branch with blossom. Attributed to John Riley...

Portrait of a lady, half-length in a feigned oval wearing a ruby coloured silk gown holding entwined strings of pearls across her bodice. Signed 'PNason' and dated 1667 (lower right)...

A portrait of a lady three-quarter length, seated in an interior, wearing a red silk gown draped in a pink silk sash with an exotic bird perched on her hand and one arm resting on a stone plinth, her young daughter wearing a green silk gown standing at her side. Oil on canvas, housed in a period 'Lely' giltwood frame. This double portrait was painted at the height of Dahl's career in circa 1715 when Dahl had become firmly established as one of the leading portrait painters in Britain. Although the identities of the sitters are currently unknown, it is a sensitive depiction of a close and affectionate bond between a mother and daughter, with the young girl's hand resting affectionately on her mothers lap. The tamed exotic bird adds a charming decorative element which also serves to convey the high social status of the lady, given only the very wealthy would be able to own such a rare and expensive pet and the lively colouring of the bird's feathers is reflected in the colours of the sitters' silk gowns. Provenance: Private collection, London Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659-1743 London) was born in Stockholm in Sweden and studied under Martin Hannibal (d 1741) and later with David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. In 1682 he travelled to London, where he became acquainted with Godfrey Kneller and Henry Tilson, and in 1685 he left for Europe with Tilson, working briefly in Paris before continuing to Venice and Rome, where they stayed for about two years. In Rome Dahl converted to Roman Catholicism and gravitated towards the circle of Christina, former Queen of Sweden, who sat for him (Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincs). He returned to England with Tilson via Frankfurt and arrived in London in 1689, staying in England for the remainder of his career. During Dahl's absence, Kneller had consolidated his supremacy in London as the most fashionable portrait painter, but Dahl rapidly became Kneller’s closest competitor. His patrons probably had roots in the Swedish diplomatic circles, but it expanded as a result of his ability and his agreeable personality. His prices were lower than those of Kneller and he favoured softer, more diffused, colour tones and could respond to his sitters with sincerity and humanity. Politically, Kneller supported the ascendant Whigs while Dahl was a Tory, but they frequently painted the same sitters from both parties, and in spite of fundamental differences in technique and temperament, their work was sometimes similar in appearance. Dahl was prolific but rarely signed his work, and comparatively few of his portraits were engraved in mezzotint, the method used by Kneller to widen his reputation. By 1690 he had painted the aged Duke of Schomberg (engraved by William Faithorne) and Prince George of Denmark (London, Kensington Palace). He was ignored by William III but received commissions from Princess Anne, including one for a portrait of herself (Oakly Park, Ludlow, Salop). He also painted the future Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and his informal portrait of the Duchess (Althorp House, Northants), formerly attributed to Kneller, is perhaps the most intimate of all images of her. During the 1690s he secured the patronage of Charles Seymour, the ‘Proud’ 6th Duke of Somerset, who ordered a series of seven full-length portraits of notable contemporary beauties from Dahl (1690s; Petworth House, W. Sussex, NT). This was originally a scheme similar to Kneller’s more famous ‘Hampton Court Beauties’, but the portraits were subsequently reduced to three-quarter-length formats. The features of the sitters are not individualized, but they possess a decorative, languorous glamour that recalls Lely rather than Kneller. Somerset gave Dahl further employment over the next 25 years. In 1698, following the death of Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, Dahl was offered the post of court painter at Stockholm, which he apparently refused, preferring to remain in London at his studio in Leicester Fields, near the Swedish legation. In about 1700 he was joined by a young compatriot, Hans Hysing, who worked with him for many years. Dahl seems not to have married until after 1708, He had a son Michael (d. 1741), also a painter, of whose work nothing is known, and two daughters. After the accession of Queen Anne in 1701, she and Prince George sat for a number of official portraits. His royal patronage ceased with Queen Anne’s death, and when Dahl refused to paint the infant Duke of Cumberland in 1722. He was suspected of Jacobite sympathies, and relations had cooled between him and the Swedish legation. However, his practice continued to prosper, and he acquired another important patron in Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, who shared his political views and whose circle included the architect James Gibbs and the poets Matthew Prior and Alexander Pope, all of whom Dahl painted. Oxford commissioned several portraits of himself. In the earliest (1719; Welbeck Abbey...

Provenance: Torres Family Collection, Asunción, Paraguay, ca. 1967-2017 While the genre of portraiture flourished in the New World, very few examples of early Spanish colonial portraits have survived to the present day. This remarkable painting is a rare example of female portraiture, depicting a member of the highest echelons of society in Cuzco during the last quarter of the 17th century. Its most distinctive feature is the false beauty mark (called a chiqueador) that the sitter wears on her left temple. Chiqueadores served both a cosmetic and medicinal function. In addition to beautifying their wearers, these silk or velvet pouches often contained medicinal herbs thought to cure headaches. This painting depicts an unidentified lady from the Creole elite in Cuzco. Her formal posture and black costume are both typical of the established conventions of period portraiture and in line with the severe fashion of the Spanish court under the reign of Charles II, which remained current until the 18th century. She is shown in three-quarter profile, her long braids tied with soft pink bows and decorated with quatrefoil flowers, likely made of silver. Her facial features are idealized and rendered with great subtly, particularly in the rosy cheeks. While this portrait lacks the conventional coat of arms or cartouche that identifies the sitter, her high status is made clear by the wealth of jewels and luxury materials present in the painting. She is placed in an interior, set off against the red velvet curtain tied in the middle with a knot on her right, and the table covered with gold-trimmed red velvet cloth at the left. The sitter wears a four-tier pearl necklace with a knot in the center with matching three-tiered pearl bracelets and a cross-shaped earing with three increasingly large pearls. She also has several gold and silver rings on both hands—one holds a pair of silver gloves with red lining and the other is posed on a golden metal box, possibly a jewelry box. The materials of her costume are also of the highest quality, particularly the white lace trim of her wide neckline and circular cuffs. The historical moment in which this painting was produced was particularly rich in commissions of this kind. Following his arrival in Cuzco from Spain in the early 1670’s, bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo actively promoted the emergence of a distinctive regional school of painting in the city. Additionally, with the increase of wealth and economic prosperity in the New World, portraits quickly became a way for the growing elite class to celebrate their place in society and to preserve their memory. Portraits like this one would have been prominently displayed in a family’s home, perhaps in a dynastic portrait gallery. We are grateful to Professor Luis Eduardo Wuffarden for his assistance cataloguing this painting on the basis of high-resolution images. He has written that “the sober palette of the canvas, the quality of the pigments, the degree of aging, and the craquelure pattern on the painting layer confirm it to be an authentic and representative work of the Cuzco school of painting...

The Pearl Lady, most probably Elisabeth of Bohem, Princess Palatine. Oil on board signed Honthorst, dated 1644 Within a beautiful tortoise shell With a certificate by René Millet ( Well Known French Expert in Paris) The young unknown portrait shows the talent of the artist. We will appreciate the quality of glazed face, the light in the beads and the psychological analysis of the model. We almost read the character of the model. This type of face is found throughout the valley of the Rhin, Switzerland, the Netherlands. Our beauty is flirtatious and love beautiful pearls, symbol of fidelity. And so the large barocco pearl, the earrings, the necklace, the adornment in her hair; all attest of the prosperity. Gerrit Van Honthorst was born in 1590 and died 1656. His career is divided into two very different parts. In the first part of his life he is The “Night Master”, "Cavaragesque" painter, that the Italian nicknamed GUERARDO OF THE NOTTE. This period mainly Roman, which will influence LA TOUR and REMBRAND overshadowed the rest of his work. Indeed, it has been forgotten today; but when GUERARDO DE LA NOTTE returned to Utrecht, he became a fashionable portrait's painter. Radical changes without knowing the real reasons although it is often forgotten that a painter like everyone needs to survive ... Especially since the death of Van Dyck has opened the road to our artist who will rush into exploiting it. He is called to the court of Charles I, in London, where he will paint the king and the nobles of the court. In 1637, he moved to The Hague and become Van Dyck's official successor for the Netherlands and all Europe. Gerrit van Honthorst’s night paintings caused such a sensation in Rome that he was known as Gherardo delle Notti...

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) Attributed to George Knapton (1698-1778) Dressed in the Turkish manner, stand...

Titan Fine Art present this picture which formed part of a historic collection of an English aristocratic family, Lord and Lady Sandys at their magnificent baroque and Regency Grade-...

Titan Fine Art present this picture which formed part of a historic collection of an English aristocratic family, Lord and Lady Sandys at their magnificent baroque and Regency Grade-...

Christian Charity is an original Old Master Painting realized in the first half of the XVII Century, most probably in the 1630s, by one of the pupils of the Italian artist Bernardo Strozzi...