Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures from the collection of the late Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher

Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures from the collection of the late Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 131. Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, holding a bible.

Property from Greystoke Castle, Penrith, Cumbria

Gerrit van Honthorst

Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, holding a bible

Lot Closed

December 9, 02:31 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from Greystoke Castle, Penrith, Cumbria

Gerrit van Honthorst

Utrecht 1592 - 1656

Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, holding a bible


signed and dated centre left: GHonthorst / 1646

oil on canvas

unframed: 126.5 x 101.8 cm.; 49⅞ x 40⅛ in.

framed: 140.3 x 114.5 cm.; 55¼ x 45⅛ in.


Sir Arthur Cowell-Stepney, Bt (1834–1909), Llanelli, South Wales;
Thence by descent to Stafford Howard, the great-grandfather of the present owner, in circa 1884;
Thence by descent at Greystoke Castle, Penrith, Cumbria.
J.R. Judson and R. Ekkart, Gerrit van Honthorst 1592–1656, Doornspijk 1999, p. 322, no. 506, reproduced pl. 382.

This painting, and its companion piece,1 appear quite old-fashioned for 1646 and are unusual in Van Honthorst's œuvre. The companion piece depicts a gentleman in three-quarter length and is inscribed 'Eersaemen zeer discreten ger. philipel (?) [to]t Amsterdam'; however it has not been possible to idenitify the sitter on the basis of this inscription.


1 Judson and Ekkart 1999, pp. 316–17, no. 484, reproduced pl. 385 (whereabouts unknown).