Notes
In a letter of 15 January 2003, Prof. W. Sumowski characterizes this painting as one of the best works of the important portrait painter Govaert Flinck. Flinck received his first lessons from Lambert Jacobsz, in Leeuwarden, and around 1633 he moved to Amsterdam to be educated by Rembrandt himself.
Rembrandt’s influence is clearly visible in Flinck’s portraits and landscapes of the 1630s. This portrait is in the best tradition of the art of portrait painting of the first half of the 17th century.
Govert Flinck had influential patrons in Amsterdam and was commissioned to work on several major projects in the last decade of his life. In 1654, he executed a painting commissioned by Amalia van Solms for a private room in Huis ten Bosch. This was followed by two commissions for the new Town Hall in Dam Square, one for the Burgomasters Chamber in 1656 and one for the Council Chamber in 1658. In November 1659, Flinck received his most prestigious commission of all, once again for the Town Hall of Amsterdam. He was invited to paint twelve pictures for the large gallery, but his death a few months later prevented him from completing the project.
Provenance
– Lord Ronald Gower, 1882;
– Collection Marquis of Bute, 1884-1926;
– in 1926 to a private collection;
– shown at TEFAF 1998;
– with Art dealers Whitfield Fine Art, London, 2003;
– from whom acquired by the present owner, a Dutch Foundation in 2003.
Exhibitions
– Bethnal Green Branch Museum, 1883, catalogue by J.P. Richter, London 1883, cat no. 98;
– Luston House, Collection Marquis of Bute, catalogue by J.P. Richter, 1884, cat. no. 56.
Literature
– Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A. (Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery),’The Great Historic Galleries of England’, London 1882, Vol. III, fig. 25;
– J.W. von Moltke, ‘Govaert Flinck’, Amsterdam 1965, no. 381, p. 144.
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