Portrait of a Lady

1676

Nicolaes Maes

Painter, Dutch, 1634 - 1693

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman with gray hair and wearing a scarlet-red, velvet dress looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s shoulders and face are angled slightly to our left so she gazes out of the corners of her dark blue eyes under sloping brows. Her pink lips are closed, and jowls soften her chin line. She wears a black cap over her gray hair, and gold, jeweled earrings hang from her ears. A double strand of pearls is around her neck. The bodice of her dress is cut straight across the shoulders, and white cloth covering her decolletage is tucked into the neckline. A muted gold cloth wraps around the woman’s left shoulder, to our right, across her back, and down over her other elbow. The red dress’s sleeves split over the puffy white sleeves of her undergarment. The woman rests her right elbow, to our left, on a ledge, and her other hand hangs by her side with those fingers nestled into the fabric of her skirt. An iridescent, gold-colored cloth drapes over the ledge to our left and behind the woman. A stone column is along the left edge of the painting and a sunset sky over a grassy, tree-filled landscape is visible to the right. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “NMaes 1676.”

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Nicolaes Maes, one of the foremost portrait painters of the second half of the seventeenth century, began his career as a painter of religious subjects and genre scenes. These early works reflect the influence of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), with whom he studied in Amsterdam between 1646 and 1653. Maes’ shift to portraiture occurred only after his return to his native city of Dordrecht in late 1653. Adopting the refined style of Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Maes soon began to create elegant portraits of Dutch burghers dressed in fashionable clothing that reflected their wealth and status. In search of a greater pool of patrons, he returned to Amsterdam in 1673.

Maes has portrayed this unknown matron in a rather formal pose and with a neutral expression, but he softened and enlivened her image with the loose brushwork and vibrant reds of her shimmering gown. The double strand of pearls, emblems of virtue, and her sumptuous earrings proclaim the woman’s prosperity. The broad handling, a hallmark of Maes’ style, owes much to Van Dyck’s manner of painting, but rather than idealizing the sitter as Van Dyck would have done, Maes faithfully renders her countenance. The heavy gold curtain, used as a backdrop, is another reference to material wealth, while the large column and the arcadian landscape in the distance lend the whole scene a classical air.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 43

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle

  • Dimensions

    overall: 116 x 91 cm (45 11/16 x 35 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2001.138.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Portrait of a Lady, 1676

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Joseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn [1783-1861], Brussels.[1] Camberlyn d'Amougies collection, by 1886;[2] Dowager Camberlyn d'Amougies, Pepinghen, near Brussels, by 1897 until at least 1915;[3] her son, Joseph Camberlyn d'Amougies; (sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 13 July 1926, no. 618, as Portrait de Johanna Koerten, Femme d'Adriaan Blok); De Haan. (sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1960, no. 90a); (Appleby Brothers, Ltd., London). Mrs. Albert Heyse, Ghent; (Heyse sale, M. Dragonetti, Ghent, 13-15 May 1963, 2nd day, no. 345).[4] (Appleby Brothers, Ltd., London); purchased by Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008], New York;[5] gift 2001 to NGA.
[1] Provenance as given by León Krempel, Stidoem zi dem datoertem Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693), Petersberg, 1999: no. 185.
[2] The painting was owned by this collection when it was lent to the 1886 exhibition in Brussels.
[3] She was given as the owner by Ernst W. Moes, Iconographia Batava. Beredeneerde Lijst van Geschilderde en Gebeeldhouwde Portretten van Noord-Nederlanders in Vorige Eeuwen, Amsterdam, 1897-1905: 523, no. 4246, and by Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der Hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen am Neckar and Paris, 1907-1928: 6(1915):no. 201.
[4] The provenance is contradictory at this point. The painting appears to match the painting in the Heyse sale, which includes the size and a photograph in the catalogue. According to the introduction in the sale catalogue, the collection that sold in Ghent in 1963 was formed mainly by Albert Heyse, who died in 1955. His widow maintained the collection after his death, and therefore presumably purchased the NGA painting after its appearance in the 1960 sale in London. The 1963 sale was under the direction of Jean Heyse, whose relationship to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Heyse has not been determined.
However, Appleby Brothers is listed as the buyer in the 1960 catalogue, and they appear to have kept the painting until they included it in an exhibition in the summer of 1962. McCrindle purchased the painting in July 1962 from the exhibition, according to the invoice; see the copy in NGA curatorial files.
[5] A "Nicolas Maes oil painting" appears on an Appleby Bros. Ltd. statement of account with J.F. McCrindle, dated 8 January 1963, in NGA curatorial files. This confirms the 1962 invoice.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1886

  • Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens organisée au profit de la Caisse centrale des artistes belges, Academie Royale de Belgique, Brussels, 1886, no. 128, as Portrait de Johanna Koerten Blok.

1962

  • First Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Oil Paintings of the 17th and 18th Century, Appleby Brothers. Ltd., London, 1962, no. 17.

Bibliography

1886

  • Hymans, Henri. "Correspondance de Belgique: L’exposition rétrospective de Bruxelles, II." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 34, no. 5 (1886): 434, as Portrait de Johanna Koerten Blok.

1897

  • Moes, Ernst Wilhelm. Iconographia Batava. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1897–1905: 1(1897):523, no. 4246.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 6(1915):no. 201.

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 6(1916): 530, no. 201.

1915

  • Bijleveld, W. J. J. C. "Een merkwaardige verzameling oud-Nederlandsche kunst in België." Oud Holland 33 (1915): 161-164.

1962

  • Appleby Brothers Ltd. First exhibition of Dutch and Flemish oil paintings of the 17th and 18th century. Exh. cat. Appleby Brothers Ltd., London, 1962: 34-35, no. 17, repro.

1963

  • Hall, H. van. Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars: repertorium. Amsterdam, 1963: 171-172, no. 1157.1.

2000

  • Krempel, León. Studien zu den datierten Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 9. Petersburg, 2000: no. A185, fig. 252.

2012

  • Grasselli, Margaret M., and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds. The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2012: 19, repro. 185.

Inscriptions

lower right: NMaes 1676

Wikidata ID

Q20177668

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