Circle of Cornelis de Vos

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 11 January 1995, lot 92 (as Circle of De Vos);

Where acquired by the present collector.

H.J.M. Vieveen, "Iconografisch Bureau," in RKD Bulletin 2 (1995), p. 10, reproduced.

Christina Vervoorn was two and a half years old when this endearing portrait was executed in 1625.¹ She wears a highly ornamented white and silver dress that is embellished with a lace-trimmed collar and overdress. Around her neck and wrists are strings of coral beads, which were believed to serve an apotropaic function, protecting young children from evil. The young girl, depicted with tremendous gravitas for a toddler, holds a wicker basket containing cherries, one of which she offers to her pet parrot. The rare and exotic bird was a signifier of conspicuous consumption in seventeenth-century Holland: such highly coveted birds were imported from overseas and served as colorful (and chatty) status symbols.

¹ The arms are identified on the RKD.