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Nicolaes MaesPortrait of Noble LadyDated 1691
Dated 1691
About the Item
Signed and dated "N MAE / 1691" (lower right)
Oil on canvas
A masterful example of 17th-century Dutch portraiture, this magnificent oil on canvas comes alive with luminous color, dramatic contrast and extraordinary detail. The work was composed by Nicolaes Maes, an artist widely regarded as the most prominent portrait painter of his era in Amsterdam. Fashionably styled, Portrait of a Noble Lady exemplifies the mature style of Maes, executed with the same artistry and attention to detail he imparted on his most important private commissions.
This work by Maes comes from the second half of his career and follows in the rich tradition of the great Flemish Baroque painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Like these artists, Maes excels at not only capturing his subjects with a technical perfection but also their inherent elegance and grace. The sitter is draped in luxurious white and red silks and pearls, underscoring the importance and prosperity of his wealthy clientele. She is placed against a dark backdrop, enabling a striking chiaroscuro effect characteristic of the artist’s portraits.
Maes’s immense talent for detail and composition is clearly evident. In both palette and proportion, it embodies the somewhat austere style preferred by the artist, which emphasized a painstaking study of the costumes, hairstyles and accessories of his subjects. Such elaborate and highly detailed costuming in portraiture was a fashionable way to show one's wealth in the 17th century, particularly among the emerging class of wealthy merchants. Similar works by the painter can be found in the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), National Gallery (London), National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.
Nicolaes Maes was born in Dordrecht in 1634 to a prosperous cloth merchant. Around 1848, he moved to Amsterdam to study under Rembrandt for several years before returning to his native Dordrecht, where he established himself as a painter of genre scenes and portraits. In the 1650s, Maes traveled to Antwerp where he studied the work of Flemish artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens, after which he dedicated his career almost entirely to portraiture. Also at this time, he abandoned his more Rembrandtesque early style, opting instead for a lighter, cooler palette with shadows of grays and blacks rather than brownish tones, as seen in the present work. For the last two decades of his life, he resided again in Amsterdam, swiftly becoming the premier portrait painter for Dutch high society.
The painting is registered in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), The Hague, as an authenticated work by Nicolaes Maes.
Dated 1691
Canvas: 24 5/8" high x 19 3/4" wide
Frame: 36" high x 31 1/4" wide
- Creator:Nicolaes Maes (1634 - 1693, Dutch)
- Creation Year:Dated 1691
- Dimensions:Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 31.25 in (79.38 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:Seller: 31-36221stDibs: LU1868771132
Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre and portraits. He was born in Dordrecht, the son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous merchant, and Ida Herman Claesdr. In about 1648, he went to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt's studio. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1653, Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures, with life-size figures and in a deep glowing scheme of color, like The Reverie at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Card Players at the National Gallery, and The Children with a Goat Carriage. So closely did his early style resemble that of Rembrandt, that the last-named picture, and other canvases in the Leipzig and Budapest galleries and in the collection of Lord Radnor, were or are still ascribed to Rembrandt. In his best period, from 1655–65, Maes devoted himself to the domestic genre on a smaller scale, retaining to a great extent the magic of color he had learned from Rembrandt. Only on rare occasions did he treat scriptural subjects, as in Hagar's Departure, which has been ascribed to Rembrandt. His favorite subjects were women spinning, or reading the Bible, or preparing a meal. Maes had a particular fascination with the subject of lacemaking and made almost a dozen versions on this subject. While he continued to reside in Dordrecht until 1673, when Maes settled in Amsterdam, he visited or even lived in Antwerp between 1665–67. His Antwerp period coincides with a complete change in style and subject. He devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture and abandoned the intimacy and glowing color harmonies of his earlier work for a careless elegance which suggests the influence of Van Dyck. So great indeed was the change, that it gave rise to the theory of the existence of another Maes, of Brussels. His registered pupils were Justus de Gelder, Margaretha van Godewijk, Jacob Moelaert, and Johannes Vollevens. Maes died in Amsterdam. Maes is well represented at the London National Gallery by five paintings: The Cradle, The Dutch Housewife, The Idle Servant, The Card Players, and a man's portrait. At Amsterdam, besides the splendid examples to be found at the Rijksmuseum, is The Inquisitive Servant of the Six collections. At Buckingham Palace is The Listening Girl (repetitions exist), and at Apsley House Selling Milk and The Listener. Other notable examples are at the Berlin, Brussels, St Petersburg, the Hague, Frankfort, Hanover, Ottawa and Munich galleries.
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Acquired by descent to Lieutenant Colonel H.R.G. Howard
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South Kensington, "Second special exhibition of National Portraits," 1867, no. 478, lent by the Hon. Mrs. Greville.
Agnew's, London, 1903, no. 17.
Literature:
Algernon Graves and W. V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., vol. 3 (London, 1899), p. 945.
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