Oil More Art

Portrait of a Lady, Mrs William Acton of Bramford Hall, in a Silk Dress and Blue Fur-Trimmed Cape c.1740 Signed By Thomas Bardwell (1704-1767) This exquisite work, presented by Tit...

Revelation, 80x100cm

Our way out, 180x120 cm, Oil, stitched canvas, Sand

Nameless Island, 70x50cm, canvas, oil, mixed media

Winner, 130x160 cm, Oil, Coffee bag, Sand

Lake Shore II, 100x120 cm, oil, canvas

Pink and white abstract contemporary concentric ombre shaped painting by Houston, TX artist David Hardaker. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on the reverse. Artist Statement:...

Blue and white abstract contemporary concentric oval shaped painting by Houston, TX artist David Hardaker. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on the reverse. Artist Statement: ...

A fine impressionist landscape in the Souhegan Valley of New Hampshire, probably Wilton, by American artist Chauncey Foster Ryder (1868-1949). Ryder grew up in New Haven, Connecticut...

Image dimensions: 19cm x 29cm Framed dimensions: 32.2cm x 43cm Signed lower right As one of Britain's leading landscape artists, Peter Symonds is unde...

Image dimensions: 40cm x 30cm Framed dimensions: 32.2cm x 43cm Signed lower left. Martin’s work reflects his love of nature, played out in exquisitely detailed studies of the count...

An impressive coastal ocean seascape titled “Light Play” by American artist Clifford Warren Ashley (1881 - 1947). Ashley was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, graduated and went to...

Faun`s sweet dream, 2021, 90x80 cm

Man 1, 2021, 120x55 cm

Faun`s rest, 2021, 80x70 cm

A fine landscape painting of Wilton Center, New Hampshire by American artist Stanley Wingate Woodward (1890-1970). Woodward was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and went on to author A...

A fine nocturnal landscape with moonlight on the water by Dutch American artist Anthony Thieme (1888-1954). Thieme was born in Rotterdam, Holland and, after traveling in Europe, Engl...

A pleasant tonalist landscape of twilight reflections in the marsh by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to ...

A fine tonalist landscape with leaves beginning to change by a marsh by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on t...

A pleasant tonalist landscape with twilight over the marsh by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to become w...

A fine vertical tonalist landscape with cabin and figure by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to become wel...

A fine tonalist landscape with colorful twilight sky at the end of the day by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and wen...

A fine tonalist landscape oil painting by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to become well known as a tonal...

A fine tonalist landscape with a break in the trees by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to become well kno...

A nicely executed tonalist landscape with a girl and her sheep by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to beco...

A fine tonalist landscape with a brook and boulder by American contemporary artist Dennis Sheehan (b. 1950). Sheehan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to become well know...

A fine tonalist autumn landscape by American artist Robert Crannell Minor Sr. (1839-1904). Minor was born in New York City, born in New York City and as a young man,worked as a bookk...

An exceptional tonalist landscape of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California by Scottish American artist William Keith (1838-1911). Keith was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and came to New York with his family and apprenticed to a wood engraver. In 1859, he moved to San Francisco where he worked for an engraver and later set up his own engraving business. Studying with Samuel Marsden Brookes in 1863, he was determined to become a painter. He married artist Elizabeth Emerson and did watercolor painting with her guidance. In 1868, he became a full-time painter, and that same year was commissioned to paint scenes along the Columbia River including Mount Hood. By August 1869 he had sold enough paintings to finance an extended journey to the East Coast and Europe including Dusseldorf, Germany throughout most of 1870, studying with Albert Flamm...

A fine landscape with sheep and cattle by American artist George Loring Brown (1814-1889). Brown was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was apprenticed to wood engravers and illustr...

My work touches on the importance of home and a sense of security. I believe it is a basic human need to feel like someone is waiting for you. I depict not only my homeland, but also...

Berries and birds, 180x150cm, Oil, Canvas, Sand

My work touches on the importance of home and a sense of security. I believe it is a basic human need to feel like someone is waiting for you. I depict not only my homeland, but also...

A nicely detailed oil painting on canvas, laid down on board, of two greyhound dogs with a rolling landscape in the background, indistinctly signed lower left, and housed in a custom...

A fine White Mountain oil painting of Mount Washington & the Saco River at Hiram, Maine by American artist Frank Henry Shapleigh (1842-1906). Shapleigh was born in Boston, Massachus...

October, 100x150 cm, Oil, Canvas, sand

Portrait of a Gentleman, William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon of Ardagh c.1695-1710 Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) This sumptuous portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, was ...

"Zinnias and Cosmos" is an impressionistic still life oil painting of bright glowing flowers by British born, but Florence-based painter Amy Florence. Signed at bottom right in red ...

Contemporary colorful painting by Houston-based artist Peter Healy. The work features expressive pink, blue, yellow, and red strokes against a light gray background. Signed, titled, ...

This exquisite oil on copper portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, sits within one of the finest examples of the artist’s work. Signed and dated: “J Downman / pinx / 1779” it is a ...

This elegant portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, depicts a beautiful young lady seated in a wooded area, resting one arm on a rock, before a landscape and a warm evening sky. She is wearing a white smock under russet-coloured silks, loosely held in place by an immense black diamond clasp on the sleeve, and her body is enveloped in a voluptuous swag of azure silk; the costly fabrics and jewels reveal that the sitter was a paragon of a wealthy and privileged society that she belonged to. Much of the attractiveness of this portrait resides in its graceful composition and the beauty of the youthful sitter. The flowing water in the left margin of the picture and the shell that she holds are compositional devises often used at the time to allude to her potential as wife and mother, recalling Proverbs, Chapter 5, Verse 18: “Let thye fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of thye youth”. Symbolism was a key component to many works of this period and contemporary viewers would have deciphered them immediately. Such images exude a sense of status and Augustan decorum, and were highly influential in transmitting these values into the first half of the eighteenth century. Held in a good quality and condition gilded antique frame. Herman Verelst was from a great dynasty of painters, with many members achieving great success. Specialising in portraits and still life paintings, he was one of the legions of foreign-born artists working in England at the time. Today, many of his pictures are given to other artists or are simply relegated to that term “circle of” which is a great disservice because he had an ability to render faces and drapery on par with some of the best artists at the time. Herman’s work is quite distinctive in the way he rendered faces and this particular pose was a favourite. His faces were portrayed with great skill often using the sfumato technique which gave them a very smooth feel to the skin with no hard lines, and many known works by him show that he could also render drapery with great affect. Our painting was painted in the 1690’s. His father, Pieter Hermansz Verelst...

"Volpaia with Trees" is a contemporary realist landscape of expansive Tuscan countryside painted en plein air. The medieval village of Volpaia can bee seen in the distance at the end...

Lake Shore II, 100x120 cm, oil, canvas

My paintings are a reflection of my inner space, I will call it a garden. What is this garden like? It's a little chaotic, a little bright, a little abstract, a little orderly, a l...

blue expression, 80x100cm

This fine coastal oil painting was painted by American artist Henry Shokler (1896-1978). Shokler was born in Cincinnati, OH and was an active artist and pioneer in silk screen and se...

This ravishing portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, is said to represent Elizabeth Stuart, a British princess, who from 1619 was the titular queen o...

This work formed part of an ancient collection of family heirlooms of the Wood family of Bracon Ash, Norfolk. This painting, along with another (also with Titan Fine Art at the time of writing), of our sitter’s sister, descended within the family for around 275 years until recently dispersed; they are exquisite examples of Georgian portraiture in England and represents the best of the artist’s work. They are held in their original carved and gilded frames, which are absolute top quality and condition and magnificent works of art in their own right. The sitter’s daughter, Ann, was famously married on board the Foudroyant, off Naples, in a lavish ceremony in 1799, with Lord Nelson himself giving away the bride. The sitter is Jane Wood. Her father was Thomas Wood (1682-176) and Dorothy Huby (1700-1759) and the family lived in Norwich, which in 1720 was a city second in importance only to London. Jane was baptised 14 Oct 1727 at Bracon Ash and had many siblings. Her aunt, also Jane (died in 1756 in Bruges, aged 79) was a Franciscan nun. A portrait of her younger sister, Dorothy Wood (1730-1759), is also with Titan Fine Art at the time of writing. In 1758 Jane married Knipe Gobbet (1730/5-1791) who was Sheriff in 1768 (and Mayor in 1771) of the City of Norwich, and later Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Norfolk Regiment, in which corps he had served in for many years. Knipe was born at his family seat, Tacolneston Hall, to parents George Gobbet (Sheriff in 1710) and Ann. The couple bought and lived in a house in Norwich (later known as Gurney’s Bank House) until 1778 before moving to another one at 10 St Stephen’s Street, Norwich. Later, they inherited the family seat of Tacolnestan Hall and lived there for the remainder of their lives. Knipe Gobbet was a prominent individual. In 1779 he gave the corporation of Norwich 100 pounds to be disposed of as they might think proper and soon after that he was presented with a handsome field tent, marquee, and camp equipage, in testimony of their esteem for his dedication to the defence and service of this country at a time when threatened by an invasion. Although Jane was baptised a Roman Catholic Knipe was a prominent local wine merchant, JP, Alderman, sheriff, mayor and Lieutenant. Roman Catholics may have paid lip service to religious conformity as they were excluded from certain areas of public life before the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. The couple had many children, most of which were schooled at the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, in Paris. Their oldest daughter, Anne (1760-1817) first married Peter Bottalini of London 27 Oct 1783 at Tacolneston Hall. They had one son together. She later met Dr William Compton (1733- 1824), who was Chancellor of Ely and the next collateral male relation to the Earl of Northampton, and on 9th July 1799, they married in a famous and lavish ceremony on board the Foudroyant, off Naples, where the bride was given away by the Right Hon. Lord Nelson himself (Ann and William then spent many years on the continent where they were British residents of Posilipo Naples). The marriage document, signed by Lord Nelson, Lady Emma Hamilton, Captain Thomas Hardy, and others descended within the family, until sold in a recent sale that raised worldwide interest. It accounts: 'This is to certify that, on board the Foudroyant lying in Naples Bay, on the ninth of July 1799 the marriage between William Compton & Mrs Anne Bottalin, widow, was solemnized by me S. G. Comyn HM. Chaplain to the Right Honble Lord Nelson, H.M.S. Foudroyant, in the presence of'. With the following autograph signatures: Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), Lady Emma Hamilton (1765-1815), Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805); Sir John Thomas Duckworth (1747-1817), Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839), John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick (1769-1859), Josiah Nisbet (1780-1830), John Tyson, William Compton and Anne Bottalin, and 2 others” The document sheds light on Nelson's lesser-known side of his character. William Compton ... received "a great many favours and kindnesses" from Nelson, and most especially "the kind interest" taken in sealing his union with a wife who made him "the happiest of mortals". Anne, the aforesaid spouse, said that the admiral's "good heart" had made her "as happy as I can possibly be on this earth" ... Midshipman Parsons remembered those days nostalgically, noting Emma's "graceful form" bending over her harp to bestow "heavenly music" upon the diners on the quarterdeck and the large-decked galley, flush with opera singers, that glided alongside to serenade the sunset of each day'. Our sitter’s other children were: 1) Thomas, who died in 1762, aged four, of a small-pox inoculation, 2) Dorothy (died suddenly of apoplexy 21st Nov 1813). She came to the convent 19th July 1777 and returned to England 23 March 1779, 3) Frances (baptised 22 Feb 1763), who came to the convent when she was nine years old, and eventually married and her surname became Negri, 4) Jane, is thought to have married Juan Manuel Martinez in 1784, 5) and a further possible daughter, Mary. Jane died in 1790 and her husband one year later. Tacolneston has an ancient history of which according to the Domesday Book, Edward I granted a weekly market to be held on a Wednesday at the manor of Tacolneston and two annual fairs. The church was rebuilt in 1503 and is dedicated to All Saints. The earliest view of Tacolneston is a print of 1781 when it belonged to Knipe Gobbet Esq. John Theodore Heins (1697-1756) was a painter whose work, at his best, shows detail of an exceptionally high quality. His portraits of Anna Maria Kett nee Phillips and her husband Henry Kett, painted in 1741, are exceptional and evidence that he had the ability to portray a likeness on par with some of the best portraitists in England at the time. Heins appears to have originated in Germany but moved to the UK and settled in Norwich around 1720. From 1720 to his death in 1756, Heins built up a fine reputation as a portrait painter and painted many members of prominent Norfolk families right up to his last year. He was commissioned in 1732 to paint a portrait of the Mayor of Norwich, Francis Arnam and also the previous year's Mayor Robert Marsh...

This work formed part of an ancient collection of family heirlooms of the Wood family of Bracon Ash, Norfolk. This painting, along with another (also with Titan Fine Art at the time of writing) of our sitter’s sister, descended within the family for around 275 years until recently dispersed; they are exquisite examples of Georgian portraiture in England and represents the best of the artist’s work. They are held in their original carved and gilded frames, which are absolute top quality and condition and magnificent works of art in their own right. By tradition the sitter is Dorothy Wood. She was baptised 2nd June 1726, one of several children of Thomas Wood (1682-176) and Dorothy Huby (1700-1759). Her aunt, Jane Wood (1677-1756), was a Franciscan nun in Bruges. In 1758 her sister, also Jane (1727–1790), whose portrait is also with Titan Fine Art at the time of writing, married Knipe Gobbet (1730/5-1791) who was Sheriff in 1768 (and Mayor in 1771) of the City of Norwich, and later Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Norfolk Regiment, in which corps he had served in for many years. Although the Wood family were Roman Catholics Knipe was a prominent local wine merchant, JP, Alderman, sheriff, mayor and Lieutenant. Roman Catholics may have paid lip service to religious conformity as they were excluded from certain areas of public life before the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. Their oldest daughter, Anne (1760-1817) famously married Dr William Compton (1733-1824), the Chancellor of Ely and the next collateral male relation to the Earl of Northampton, in 1799, in a lavish ceremony on board the Foudroyant, off Naples, where the bride was given away by the Right Hon. Lord Nelson himself. The marriage document, signed by Lord Nelson, Lady Emma Hamilton, Captain Thomas Hardy, and others descended within the family, until recently sold, in a sale that raised worldwide interest, for £20,160. It accounts that William Compton received "a great many favours and kindnesses" from Nelson, and most especially "the kind interest" taken in sealing his union with a wife who made him "the happiest of mortals". Anne, the aforesaid spouse, said that the admiral's "good heart" had made her "as happy as I can possibly be on this earth" ... Midshipman Parsons remembered those days nostalgically, noting Emma's "graceful form" bending over her harp to bestow "heavenly music" upon the diners on the quarterdeck and the large-decked galley, flush with opera singers, that glided alongside to serenade the sunset of each day'. Our sitter died unmarried around 1759. John Theodore Heins (1697-1756) was a painter whose work, at his best, shows detail of an exceptionally high quality. His portraits of Anna Maria Kett nee Phillips and her husband Henry Kett, painted in 1741, are exceptional and evidence that he had the ability to portray a likeness on par with some of the best portraitists in England at the time. Heins appears to have originated in Germany but moved to the UK and settled in Norwich around 1720. From 1720 to his death in 1756, Heins built up a fine reputation as a portrait painter and painted many members of prominent Norfolk families right up to his last year. He was commissioned in 1732 to paint a portrait of the Mayor of Norwich, Francis Arnam and also the previous year's Mayor Robert Marsh...

Titan Fine Art presents this exquisite oil on panel portrait depicting a handsome young gentleman in an exuberant black damask doublet. The pose, with one hand holding gloves and the other akimbo, was one that was well-established for gentleman of the upper echelons of society by the time this work was painted. The principle governing portraits at this time was the recording and defining in visual terms of the position of a sitter in society. In addition to brilliant and complex symbols of luxury, they often contained many symbolic elements too; the inclusion of gloves was often used in portraits that celebrated a betrothal as in ancient times gloves were used to seal a marriage contract. The extraordinary costume of a black shimmering doublet, the brilliant white reticella ruff, and the cuffs edged with lace were immensely costly… this attire proclaims to every onlooker that this is a superior being. The rendering of the reticella lace ruff is exquisite and the artist has recorded the design that runs through the black damask fabric with meticulous attention to detail. The preservation of this black pigment is remarkable considering the age of the work. Black pigments are especially vulnerable to fade and wear over time partly due to environmental condition but also from unprofessional cleaning. This work is an exquisite example from the period. According to the inscription in the upper right, the gentleman was in his 22nd year of age in 1624. The coat of arms, which is displayed without a crest, may be ‘blazoned’ in the language of heraldry, as: Sable on a Chevron between in chief two Roundels and in base a Billet [or possibly Square] Or three Martlets Sable. In plainer English this means a black (Sable) background, spanned by a gold (Or) chevron, above which are two golden solid circles (Roundels), and below which is a gold rectangle (Billet); on the chevron are three small black birds (Martlets). Martlets are a stylised form of heraldic bird, believed to be based on the swift, which are conventionally drawn with small tufts instead of feet. In Continental Europe it is also conventional for them to be drawn without beaks, as appears to be the case here. The birds in this instance also have a vaguely duck-like appearance. Five families have been identified with very close armorial bearings to the one in our portrait. They are the (van) Houthem’s (of Brabant), the Prévinaire’s (of Flanders and Holland), and the Proveneer’s (of Liège) and it must be noted that the locations of these families also fit with the painting’s Flemish origins. However the French Grenières’s (of Île-de-France) and the Jallot’s (of Normandy) are the next closest matches and plausible matches, as Frans Pourbus had settled in Paris just a few years before our portrait was painted. This painting has been assessed by a professional conservator prior to going on sale, and as thus, it can be hung and enjoyed immediately. Frans Pourbus the Younger...

This lavish portrait, painted circa 1695, is an exquisite example of the type of portrait in vogue during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. It is evident that the artist ...

A fine New England Cape Cod landscape by American artist Aldro Thompson Hibbard (1886-1972). Hibbard was born in Falmouth, MA, studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and at the Boston Museum School with artists such as Edmond Tarbell, Frank W. Benson, Joseph R. DeCamp, and later became one of the founders of the Rockport Art Colony, living on Cape Ann in Massachusetts and summering in Jamaica...

A fine winter landscape by American artist George Gardner Symons (1863-1930). Symons was born in Chicago, IL, studied at the Chicago Art Institute where he became a close, life-long friend of William Wendt. They painted together in California and then in Cornwall, England in 1898. He also studied in Paris, Munich, and London, and joined a colony of artists at St. Ives, adopted the plein-air techniques of Julius Olsson, Adrian Stokes, and Rudolph Hellwag. He worked in Chicago as a commercial artist, and about 1903 returned to California with Wendt and built a studio in Laguna Beach and became active in western art societies including the California Art Club. He returned often, but maintained his primary studio in Brooklyn, New York, and also did a lot of painting in Colrain, Massachusetts. He painted entirely out-of-doors, frequently working in Arizona, doing desert landscape and the Grand Canyon views, but he is best known for his New England snow scenes, especially of the Berkshire Mountains...

A fine impressionist oil painting of the boat shop by Italian American artist Antonio Cirino (1889-1983). Cirino was born in Italy and moved to the United States, attending the Rhode...

A fine impressionist painting of a French pastoral landscape with trees and cows in the distance by American artist John Leslie Breck (1860-1899). Breck was born in the South Pacific...

A fine impressionist landscape of a winter stream by American artist Jonas Lie (1880-1940). Lie was born in Moss, Norway to an accomplished Norwegian engineer and an American mother. Named after his uncle, a novelist and close friend of Henrik Ibsen, Jonas went to Paris to live with his uncle in 1892, after his father's death. Surely it was here, the twelve year-old boy was influenced by the creative spirit found in his uncle's home. In 1893, Jonas moved to New York City, where he took evening classes at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League while working designing fabric patterns for a textile company to raise money to support his education. After the completion of his education, Lie spent most of his summers along the New England coast and Canada. Here he would paint bright, impressionistic harbor scenes and rocky, coastal views, which he would exhibit regularly. The landscapes and coastal paintings Lie created in New England can be characterized by a facile, broad handling of pigment and an impressionistic sense of light and air. was a prolific painter, known for his coastal views of New England and New York scenes. He became the president of the National Academy of Design from 1935 to 1939, a year before his death. Lie was also known for a series of paintings of the last days of construction of the Panama Canal in 1913. These paintings were given to the United States Military Academy...

Portrait of Frances, Lady Whitmore nee Brooke (c.1638-1690) Circle of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) Titan Fine Art presents this exquisite portrait that depicts Frances Brooke, Lady Wh...

This magnificent oil on panel portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, is a splendid example of the sumptuous female portraits that were painted for members of the upper echelons of society during the early part of the 1600’s. The artist has rendered this portrait with meticulous attention to detail and the surface effects of the fine materials. The elaborate lace coif and cuffs are painstakingly delineated, as is the bold black damask, and sumptuous gold decoration of her skirt and stomacher, which is wonderfully preserved and quite remarkable considering the age of the work and the fact that darker pigments are particularly vulnerable to fading and wear. This work with its spectacular depiction of costume is of absolute quality, it can be rated as one of the best works in the artist’s oeuvre and as such it is an important and splendid example of Dutch portraiture. The Dutch Golden Age of painting was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. Dutch explorers charted new territory and settled abroad. Trade by the Dutch East-India Company thrived, and war heroes from the naval battles were decorated and became national heroes. During this time, The Dutch Old Masters began to prevail in the art world, creating a depth of realistic portraits of people and life in the area that has hardly been surpassed. The Golden Age painters depicted the scenes that their discerning new middleclass patrons wanted to see. This new wealth from merchant activities and exploration combined with a lack of church patronage, shifted art subjects away from biblical genres. Dress was a key component in portraits, and the exuberant attire reiterates the incredible wealth of this woman. The sitter will have visited the artist’s workshop and inspected examples on display. They would have chosen the size and the sort of composition and on that basis negotiated the price – which would have also been determined by the complexity of the clothing and the jewels that were to be depicted, and by the materials to be used. When all was considered, this portrait would have cost the sitter (or her husband) a substantial sum. The colour black was regarded as humble and devout yet at the same time refined and sophisticated and the most expensive colour of fabric to dye and to maintain. Citizens spent fortunes on beautiful black robes. Such uniformity must also have had a psychological side-effect and contributed to a sense of middle-class cohesion; the collective black of the well-to-do burgess class will have given its members a sense of solidarity. The colour was always an exciting one for artists and when this portrait was painted there were at least fifty shades of it, and as many different fabrics and accoutrements. Artists went to great lengths to depict the subtle nuances of the colour and the fabrics and textures and how they reflected light and it was an ideal background against which gold and crisp white lace could be juxtaposed to dramatic effect. The sitter is either a married women or a widower as is evident by the clothing that she wears and the position, toward her right, it is highly likely that this portrait was once a pendant that hung on the right-hand side of her husband’s portrait as was convention at the time. She wears a vlieger which was a type of sleeveless over-gown or cape worn by well-to-do married women in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Variations with short sleeves or high shoulder rolls are known. Sometimes sleeves were attached with aiglets, and often slits were made to allow belts or the hands to pass through. Three-piece vlieger costumes of this kind were standard items of clothing in portraits of the women of the civic elite in the period 1600-40 and was a variant of the Spanish ‘ropa’ and served as a trademark of well-to-do married burgher women. Girls and unmarried woman, including beguines, wore a bouwen (a dress with a fitted bodice and a skirt that was closed all round) instead. This clear distinction between apparel for married and unmarried women is clear not only from inventories and trousseau lists, but also from contemporary sources such as the Dutch Spanish dictionary published by Juan Rodrigues in 1634. In it, a bouwen is described as a ‘ropa de donzella’ (over-gown worn by a virgin) and a vlieger as a ‘ropa de casada’ (overgown worn by a married woman). It is striking how few women are depicted wearing a bouwen, unless they are part of a group, family or children’s portrait and it can therefore be assumed that independent portraits of unmarried women were seldom commissioned. It is also believed that the clothing worn in these portraits existed and were faithfully reproduced when cross-referenced with the few exact documents. These sources also demonstrate that clients wanted their clothing to be depicted accurately and with this in mind precious garments and jewels were often left in the painter’s studio. The prominent white lawn molensteenkraag (or millstone ruff) is held up by a wire supportasse and was reserved only for the citizens that could afford this luxurious item that often required 15 meters of linen batiste. The fabulous wealth of this sitter is also evident by the elaborate lace coif and cuffs which have been exquisitely depicted; lace was often literally copied by artists in thin white lines over the completed clothing. The gold bracelet with jewels is a type that was evidently fashionable as it is seen in a number of portraits during the 1610s and 1620. Clothing and jewellery were prized possessions and were often listed in inventories of estates and passed down from generation to generation. There were a great number of jewellers of Flemish origin working at all the courts and cities of Europe, competing with the Italians, and then the French, adapting themselves to the tastes and positions of their patrons and the raw materials available in the country where they worked. The fashion for jewels “in the Flemish style” succeeded that of the Italian style. Cornelis van der Voort, who was probably born in Antwerp around 1576, came to Amsterdam with his parents as a child. His father, a cloth weaver by trade, received his citizenship in 1592. It is not known who taught the young Van der Voort to paint, but it has been suggested that it was either Aert Pietersz or Cornelis Ketel. On 24 October 1598 Van der Voort became betrothed to Truytgen Willemsdr. After his first wife’s death he became betrothed to Cornelia Brouwer of Dordrecht in 1613. In addition to being an artist, Van der Voort was an art collector or dealer, or both. In 1607 he bought paintings from the estate of Gillis van Coninxloo, and after an earlier sale in 1610 a large number of works he owned were auctioned on 7 April 1614. Van der Voort is documented as appraising paintings in 1612, 1620 and 1624. In 1615 and 1619 he was warden of the Guild of St Luke. He was buried in Amsterdam’s Zuiderkerk on 2 November 1624, and on 13 May 1625 paintings in his estate were sold at auction. Van der Voort was one of Amsterdam’s leading portrait painters in the first quarter of the 17th century. Several of his group portraits are known. It is believed that he trained Thomas de Keyser (1596/97-1667) and Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy (1588-1650/56). His documented pupils were David Bailly (c. 1584/86-1657), Louis du Pré...

In 1607, the Delft city council decided to commission a portrait of Stadholder Maurits of Nassau for the town hall, with Michiel van Mierevelt as the chosen artist due to the passing...