Cornelis de Vos

Frederick James Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne (d. 1853), Melbourne House, London;
Where acquired in 1855 (either by purchase or by descent) by Francis, Earl of Cowper, Panshanger, Hertfordshire;
Lady Desborough, Panshanger, Hertfordshire;
With Duits Ltd., London;
From whom acquired by Maurice H. Goldblatt, acting on behalf of Lewis J. Ruskin, Scottsdale, Arizona;
Thence by descent and anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 16 May 1996, lot 18;
There purchased by the present collector.

M.L. Boyle, Biographical catalogue of the portraits at Panshanger the seat of Earl Cowper, K.G., London 1885, p. 373

For a high resolution digital image, please refer to the online catalogue at Sothebys.com or contact a member of the Old Master Paintings department. The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting on panel is made of three pieces of wood joined vertically. There is one join through the left of the head and one to the right. The reverse of the panel has been cradled, probably in the last fifty years. The panel is flat and the cradle appears to be effective. Apart from the original joins of the panel, and some slightly cracking due to what appears to be a knot in the wood in the ruff beneath and to the left of the chin, there are very few areas of paint loss. Around the panel join in the upper left, there are a couple of old losses. There is a thin crack in the lower left corner to the left of the hand that has been restored. The satin bodice is probably slightly thin, but the face and all of the lace is very well preserved. Under ultraviolet light, there are a few retouches visible in the ruff and along some of the original panel joins. While there may be a few other retouches beneath an older varnish, the painting is in transparently good condition and could easily be hung in its current state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

With van Dyck's departure to Genoa in 1621, de Vos, along with Gaspar de Crayer, quickly became  the leading portrait artist in Antwerp. From his earliest works, de Vos deftly rendered his sitters with articulated contours coupled with a lush, yet soft skin quality. The use of thick impasto brushwork, as is visible in the rosy cheeks of the lady shown here, offers an enamel-like gloss to the surface. The more linear approach to the flesh tones here is contrasted with a freer handling of the details in both the costume and the richly decorated chair.

The stark background which de Vos employs here was a favored compositional choice for the artist during the first half of his career. It was during these early years that he was completing a greater amount of single-figure portraits, many of them utilizing simple backgrounds, either bare or with a red drape used as a simple framing device.

The same chair is depicted in another portrait of a standing lady in a similar pose by De Vos from circa 1632, formerly with the West Gallery, London (see E. Greindl, Cornelis de Vos, Brussels 1944, reproduced, plate 30). The present work also matches the size of a Portrait of a Gentleman in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (see Greindl 1944, p. 142).