The identification of the gentleman seems to be confirmed by comparison with a print of a self portrait by David Ryckaert in Cornelis de Bie's Het gulden Cabinet van de Schilderconst of 1661. Gonzales Coques was Ryckaert's pupil and brother-in-law, having married Catharina Ryckaert in 1643. Ryckaert himself married Jacoba Pallemans in 1649 and the first of their eight children, David IV, was born in that year. Mr. Willem van de Watering dates the present picture c. 1655 on the basis of the costumes, bhowever it is not known how many children they had at this date.

The lady in the present picture is repeated in a portrait by an imitator of Gonzales Coques in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 6160), and may therefore serve as the prototype for that picture.

We are grateful to Mr. Willem van de Watering for his assistance in cataloguing this lot