NARRATOR:
The portrait painters of 17th-century Holland had an uncanny ability to suggest the living, breathing, physical presence of their sitters. Just how they achieved this is beautifully illustrated in this meticulous portrait by Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck. The young woman’s direct gaze and warm smile immediately establish a personal relationship with the viewer. Her body is turned away from us, so that her enormous ruff seems to project beyond the surface of the canvas, into our space. Don’t miss the tiny hairs that halo her brow. Or the lustrous pearls dangling from her fine linen cap.
The sitter is almost certainly a new bride. When women of good family married, it was customary to commemorate the occasion with a portrait. On her forefinger, she wears a simple, jewel-studded wedding band. Her other ring, with its square-cut stone, her dark plumed fan, and her elaborate lace cuffs were all traditional bridal gifts.
But such details are secondary to the vivid impression Verspronck gives us of a vital, handsome and happy young woman embarking on married life. Indeed, she seems to epitomize the qualities of the ideal Dutch wife enumerated in this 17th-century contemporary poem:
ACTOR:
“A wife not proud of her high birth, yet from a line of solid worth.
A wife that by all virtue goes, yet of her gifts but little knows.
A wife, a still and peaceful wife, a foe to all that’s woe and strife.
A wife that never grunts with food, nor goes into a pouting mood.”
Portrait of a Lady
1641
Johannes Corneliszoon Verspronck (Dutch, 1606/9-1662)
On View
A gifted pupil of Frans Hals, Verspronck was at his best as a portraitist of women and children. This portrait presumably represents Trijntgen Adamsdr., wife of Haarlem painter Thomas Wyck. The formality of the dark dress and starched linen collar enhances and frames the lively expression of the sitter, whose glance is warm and engaging. The rich fabric of her dress, in combination with her deep lace cuffs and gold embroidered bodice, firmly establishes the lady's wealth and social standing among the Dutch middle class. Her image reflects the Dutch pride and confidence in their new nation's prosperity and stability.
Details
- Artist Name: Johannes Corneliszoon Verspronck (Dutch, 1606/9-1662)
- Title: Portrait of a Lady
- Date: 1641
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 31-1/8 x 26-1/8 in. (79.1 x 66.4 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1973.34.2.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
David Sellar, London (Paris, 6 June 1889, lot 90).
Stephenson R. Clarke, Haywards Heath (Christie's, London, 29 June 1973, lot 17).
[Edward Speelman, London];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Stephenson R. Clarke, Haywards Heath (Christie's, London, 29 June 1973, lot 17).
[Edward Speelman, London];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- Richmond, Virginia, Museum of Fine Arts, 1974-06-25 to 1974-12-16
- London, Royal Academy of Arts, Dutch Pictures, 1450-1750,no. 326 p. 49
- Moes, Ernst William, Iconographia Batava,vol. 1, no. 24 p. 3
- Anonymous, Collection of Pictures and Water Color Drawings Belonging to Mrs. Stephenson Clarke, p. 20
- Kelly, G.; and R. Charmat, Art et Style,
- Roach, Mary Ellen; and Kathleen Musa, with Anne Hollander, New Perspectives on the History of Western Dress. A Handbook,no. 76 p. 89
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 79
- Balet, Leo, Cicerone, p. 338
- Pleitzsch, E., Holländische und flämische Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, p. 169
- Lord Hindlip, An Auctioneer's Lot, Triumphs and Disasters at Christie's and Beyond,2016, p. 90 ; p. 90 (ill.)
- Gerson, Horst, The Connoisseur,fig. 7 pp. 166-167
- London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Old Masters on behalf of the Royal Northern Hospital, Holloway,no. 11 p. 7
- Ekkart, R., Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck,no. 35 pp. 88, 162
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 996 p. 360
- Kalaff, S., De Neiwe Gids, pp. 745-758
- Witt, Robert, Dutch Art, An Illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Dutch Art at Burlington House, London,fig. 109 p. 91
- Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals (National Gallery of Art: Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art,no. L14 p. 123
- The Burlington Magazine, pp. 53, 55
- London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900,no. 368
- Exhibition of Works by The Old Masters. . . Winter Exhibition,no. 65 p. 18
- Wurzbach, A. von, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon, p. 783
- London, Royal Academy of Arts, Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art Held in the Galleries of the Royal Academy, Burlington House London, January-March 1929,no. 368, pl. LXXXI pp. 149-150
- Sutton, Peter C., A Guide to Dutch Art in America, p.313
- Temple, A. G., Catalogue of the Exhibition of a Selection of Works by Early and Modern Painters of the Dutch School: with descriptive and biographical notes,
- Graves, A., A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, p. 1578
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