CORNELIS BISSCHOP | AN OLD WOMAN IN PRAYER

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 July 1988, lot 233, when acquired.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. VI, Landau 1983, p. 3692, cat. no. 2190, reproduced p. 3774;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 2, Genre, Münster/Hamburg/London 1996, pp. 36–39, cat. no. 6, reproduced in colour.

Cornelis Bisschop was the pupil of Ferdinand Bol, a close associate and pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn, and it is presumed he entered his studio in Amsterdam sometime in the late 1640s. He was married in Dordrecht in 1653, and had eleven children, of whom Abraham and Jacobus became painters. Shortly before his death he was invited to go to Denmark as court painter. His portraits and tronies, such as the present work, show the influence of Nicolaes Maes, another Dordrecht painter working in Amsterdam, whom he likely knew.