Aleida Wolfsen

Matthieu Neven, Cologne (his seal on the reverse);

A. Haanen, 1898 (according to an inscription on a label on the reverse);

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 26–27 October 1910, lot 156 (as Frans van Mieris);

Private collection, Germany;

By whom anonymously sold, Cologne, Lempertz, 1-3 October 1913, lot 712 (as Frans van Mieris the Elder);

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 15 April 1981, lot 56 (as 'J*** A*** Wolffen).

O. Naumann, Frans van Mieris the Elder, Doornspijk 1981, vol. II, p. 168, cat. no. C121 (under section of paintings with rejected attributions to Frans van Mieris).

This small, signed panel is an early work by the Dutch female artist Aleida Wolfsen, christened the Penseel-Prinses (brush princess) by the Dutch biographer Jacob Campo Weyerman. Aleida was born in 1648 to Hendrik Wolfsen, a prominent politician and burgomeister of Zwolle, and Aleida Verwers. During Aleida's young life, her family lived primarily between Zwolle and The Hague. She possibly trained with Caspar Netscher, with whom she developed a close friendship, even serving as witness to the baptism of two of his children (in 1673 and 1678). In 1667, the year the present panel was painted, Aleida married the burgomeister Pieter Soury. Unlike other female artists of the time, Aleida continued to pursue her passion for painting even after she was married. Although the couple settled back in Zwolle, Aleida remained active in both Amsterdam and the Hague until 1692, when she died in childbirth with her fifteenth child.