Item | Waddesdon Manor

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artist or maker

Netscher, Caspar (b.1635-1636, d.1684)

Date

1675

Place of production

Netherlands

Medium

oil on canvas

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

8087

Small oil painting of a lady seated before a window with a young boy. The woman is pictured three-quarter length on the right of the composition. She wears a low-cut silk dress with large cuffs and jewellery. She holds a rose on her lap. Behind her is a pillar. The head, shoulders and arms of the boy appear above a plinth on the left. He also holds a rose and places his left hand on the woman's arm. The plinth is decorated with a fruit festoon with a pomegranate and a bird. Trees appear behind the boy.

Caspar Netscher was the most sought-after portrait painter in the Dutch city of The Hague. This finely dressed lady and child demonstrate Netscher's debt to the aristocratic portrait-style developed by Anthony Van Dyck and his followers. The background details are characteristic of Netscher's staged compositions, which sometimes contain subtle meanings.

Commentary

The pomegranate decorating the stone wall on the left is a symbol of chastity; whilst the roses held by the pair are a symbol of love. Such general symbols were often used in female portraits making the identification of individual sitters difficult. It was once thought to show the mistress of Charles II, Louise de Kéroualle, the Duchess of Portsmouth. However, Netscher did not come to England, and only painted English sitters who travelled to the Netherlands, which did not include the Duchess.

The quality of the painting suggests the work is by Netscher with studio assistance. By this date, Netscher employed several assistants to meet demand for his work. The composition is closely related to another portrait of 1676 thought to show one of Cornelis II van Evertsen's two wives (present location unknown). The Waddesdon painting is probably the picture recorded as having been in the J. Smies and others sale, Amsterdam, 24 February 1834. The painting appears in the 1910 'Catalogue of Principal Pictures, Furniture, China and other works of art at Waddesdon Manor' but not in the 1906 edition, suggesting it was purchased by Alice de Rothschild between these two dates.

Phillippa Plock, 2012

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

475 x 385 - sight

Signature & date

signed and dated, lower left on stone block: C.N. / [16?]75

Labels

C. Netscher
1639-1684
Label
on frame, lower centre

History

Provenance

Sold in J. Smies, J. H. Knoop and others sale, Amsterdam, 24 Feb 1834, lot 93; acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922) between 1906 and 1910; inherited by James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); given to Waddesdon (National Trust) by The Treasury Solicitor in lieu of taxes on the Estate of Mr James de Rothschild in 1963.

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Waddesdon Manor, 1963

Bibliography

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Vols 5-8 [1907-1927]; Bishops Stortford; Chadwick Healey; 1976; vol 5, p. 299, no. 467a; with a plumed cap in front of the child, which does not appear in the picture
Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 158-159, cat. no. 66
Marjorie Wieseman; Caspar Netscher and late seventeenth-century Dutch painting; Doornspijk; Davaco; 2002; p. 271, no. 146

Other details

Subject person

Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth, Previous identification

Indexed terms

Person as Subject

Portsmouth, Louise, Duchess of (b.1649, d.1734)

Subjects

Genres

Portraiture/Genres

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