CORNELIUS JOHNSON | A portrait of a lady, half-length, wearing an orange silk dress and a green silk shawl

Joh. Stumpf,

By whom sold, Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 7 May 1918, lot 83;

Emil Glückstadt;

By whom sold, Copenhagen, V. Winkel & Magnussen, 2 June 1924, lot 675;

A. Young-Reusch, Oslo, 1962;

Anonymous sale ('Property from a Private Collection'), London, Sotheby's Olympia, 6 July 2004, lot

454.

Cornelius Johnson was born in London, where his family had fled from Cologne and Antwerp to escape religious persecution. He was one of the most popular English portraitists of his time, and became court painter to James I and Charles I. In 1643 he moved back to Holland, where the present work was painted in 1655 - his work at this time in his career had considerably evolved, and bears more resemblance to Dutch portraiture.