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Lot Essay
The sitter has been identified from the coat-of-arms in the upper right of the painting as a member of the de Bourgeois family, most likely Anna de Bourgeois, who died in 1636. Anna married twice, first to Michiel Boot (d. 1629), Lord of Sempeke, a treasurer, alderman and burgomaster of Antwerp, and then to Georges Uwens (d.1643), Lord of Sint-Laureins-Berche, and Linckbeke, the Secretary of Antwerp and later of the Council of Brabant. The commission to paint this portrait, dated to around 1635, may have come about through Godfried Houtappel, himself a noted patron of de Vos, who was married to Cornelia Boot, the sister of the sitter’s first husband.
Cornelis de Vos was one of Antwerp's most prominent portraitists during the first-half of the seventeenth century. Known for his likenesses of Antwerp's upper classes, finely dressed and situated in elegant settings, this portrait is an excellent example of his work. Anna de Bourgeois is shown seated in a fashionable black dress with slashed puffed sleeves, wearing a cartwheel ruff and deep lace cuffs. On her bosom, she wears a large broach decorated with the ‘IHS’ monogram of Christ and the nails of the Cross, presumably a protective talisman that also served to convey the sitter’s religious feeling.
Cornelis de Vos was one of Antwerp's most prominent portraitists during the first-half of the seventeenth century. Known for his likenesses of Antwerp's upper classes, finely dressed and situated in elegant settings, this portrait is an excellent example of his work. Anna de Bourgeois is shown seated in a fashionable black dress with slashed puffed sleeves, wearing a cartwheel ruff and deep lace cuffs. On her bosom, she wears a large broach decorated with the ‘IHS’ monogram of Christ and the nails of the Cross, presumably a protective talisman that also served to convey the sitter’s religious feeling.