DUTCH SCHOOL, CIRCA 1640 | A portrait of a young girl by a draped red curtain, a landscape beyond

In the collection of D. Bakker, by 1938;

With restorer A. Adama, The Hague, by 1959;

Private collection, The Netherlands;

Anonymous sale, Rotterdam, Vendu, 29 May 2018, lot 6.

The present painting depicts a young girl in some of her finest garb. She dons a red and gold brocade dress finished with lace cuffs and a collar tied with a delicate brooch, while holding a fan in her proper right hand. 

Unlike in other parts of Europe where portraits of children remained a rare phenomenon, the Dutch Republic saw this genre rapidly increase in popularity from around 1500 to 1700, but particularly in the seventeenth century. Such paintings were desired to call attention to the wealth of the families who commissioned them.