PAULUS MOREELSE | Portrait of a Gentleman, standing three-quarter length, wearing a black suit with a lace collar;Portrait of a Lady, standing three-quarter length, wearing a black dress with a lace collar, pearl jewelry and holding a black ostrich fan

With Kunstzaal Kleykamp, The Hague, by 1929;
With C.G. and H.L. Agnew, London, 1936-1945;
William Ewert Berry (1879-1954), 1st Viscount Camrose, Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, Hampshire, acquired in 1945 from Agnew;
John Seymour Berry (1909-1995), 2nd Viscount Camrose, Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, Hampshire;
By whose descendants sold, London, Christie’s, 9 July 1999, lot 47, where acquired.

The Hague, Kunstzaal Kleykamp, Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door oud-Hollandsche en Vlaamsche meesters, 1929, no. 36, reproduced.

C.H. de Jonge, Paulus Moreelse, Assen 1938, pp. 31,65 and 96, nos. 110a and 110b, reproduced figs. 95 and 96;
Advertisement (Agnew) in The Connoisseur 1945, p. 123, reproduced (and reproduced on the cover);
Advertisement (Agnew) in The Connoisseur 1945 (a), pp. 56-57, reproduced;
R.E.O. Ekkart, E.N. Domela Nieuwenhuis, 'Two portraits by Paulus Moreelse', Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts 67, 1995, pp. 19 and p. 21, note 21;
E.N. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638), unpublished dissertation, Leiden University 2001, pp. 100 and 499, nos. SAP120a and SAP120b (DJ110a/DJ110b);
R.H. Marijnissen and G. Van de Voorde, The Masters' and the Forgers’ Secrets. X-ray authentication of paintings, From Early Netherlandish till Modern, Bruges 2009, pp. 16 (man), 89-93 (woman), 174-175 (monogram/date), reproduced. 

Moreelse painted this magnificent pair of portraits in the early 1630s, when he was at the height of his powers. His confidence during these prosperous times is best conveyed by his self-portrait of circa 1634-35 housed at the Mauritshuis, The Hague. Moreelse came from a wealthy Utrecht family and was a pupil of portraitist Michiel van Mierevelt in Delft, whose style he fused with influences from a study trip to Italy in the 1590s. In addition to portraits, for which he is best known, Moreelse painted history and genre scenes and worked as an architect. He was also involved with civic life in his native Utrecht in several facets: he was a founding member and the first dean of the St. Luke’s Guild in 1611, served on the city council beginning in 1618, and supported the founding of Utrecht University in the 1630s. This civic engagement helped him win portrait commissions from wealthy patrons in Utrecht and across the Dutch Republic. His style is celebrated not only for his refined depiction of textiles but also for his ability to capture the warmth and personality of his sitters beneath their poses and costumes.Numerous scholars have been consulted about the identity of the sitters – surely members of the Utrecht or Dutch aristocracy – but archival research has not yet yielded their names. The pair of paintings was almost certainly commissioned to commemorate the couple’s marriage, given the conventional three-quarter pendant format with the man at left, the elegant costumes of the sitters, and the gold ring on the woman’s left hand. The woman’s jewelry speaks to the wealth of the couple: she wears two pearl bracelets, a pearl necklace, a pearl-studded headdress, a double gold chain with brooch, a gold hairpin, and holds a feathered fan with a gold chain. Moreelse suggested marital harmony by balancing the sitter’s poses- as the man stands confidently with his gloves in his left hand, the woman holds her fan gracefully in her right hand, gesturing subtly toward her partner.