Lot n° 42
Estimation :
2500 - 3500
EUR
FRISE School, 1632
Portrait of a four-year-old... - Lot 42 - Briscadieu
FRISE School, 1632
Portrait of a four-year-old child wearing a feathered hat
Canvas.
Bears an old attribution to van Somer (according to a label on the reverse).
108 x 80 cm.
(Old restorations, accidents).
The fine exhibition of children's portraits held at the Antwerp and Haarlem museums in 2000 demonstrated the importance of this genre in 17th-century Nordic painting. This importance belies the idea of some historians that affection for children did not develop until the Enlightenment. Our portrait of a little girl indicates that she is four years old ("Aetatis 4"). Dressed in a dress whose rich embroidery is meticulously rendered by the painter, she advances her left hand towards three cherries placed on a bench. A frequent symbol in children's portraits of the time, cherries had religious significance, either as celestial fruits brought to earth by the Christ child, or as emblems of youth and fertility. A feathered hat can already be seen on a child's portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.
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