Pieter van Zanten (1746-1813)

Portrait of Guilliaem Alvarez (1736-1817) burgomaster of Axel and Terneuzen, standing half length by a curtain, wearing a gold embroidered black jacket with lace chemise and wig, holding a letter; and Portrait Cornelia Alvarez ne Smits (1730-?), standing half length on a terrace by a sculpted vase on a pedestal, wearing a pink silk dress with lace chemise and wig, pearl earrings, necklace and bonnet, holding flowers in her right hand, a country mansion beyond

Details

Pieter van Zanten (1746-1813)
Portrait of Guilliaem Alvarez (1736-1817) burgomaster of Axel and Terneuzen, standing half length by a curtain, wearing a gold embroidered black jacket with lace chemise and wig, holding a letter; and Portrait Cornelia Alvarez ne Smits (1730-?), standing half length on a terrace by a sculpted vase on a pedestal, wearing a pink silk dress with lace chemise and wig, pearl earrings, necklace and bonnet, holding flowers in her right hand, a country mansion beyond
the first signed and dated B.Zanten/Fec,1768. lower left; inscribed with the coat-of-arms of the sitter centre left and inscribed Aan/Den Weled Gest: Heer/Jongheer Glmo Alvarez/Oud Brgem President Scheepe/van Axel & Ternezen/in Staats Vlaanderen/Wonende/te/Rotterdam on the letter in the centre; the second signed and dated B.Zanten/Fec.1768, lower left and inscribed with the coat-of-arms of the sitter and A. Smits lower left
oil on canvas, the second laid down on boarda pair
84.4 x 69.3 cm and smaller
in contemporary black painted oak frames (2)

Exhibited

Utrecht, Centraal Museum, on loan.

Lot Essay

The sitter, son of Bartholomeus Alvarez and Anna Sara Alvarez ne de Malpas was born in Gent in 1736. He married Cornelia Smits in 1768 (See A.A. Vorsterman van Oyen, Stam- en Wapenboek van aanzienlijke Nederlandsche familin, 1885, I, p.10).
We are grateful to E.J. Wolleswinkel of the Iconographisch Bureau in The Hague for his help in cataloguing this lot.

Little is known about the artist. One other portrait of Dr. Conrad Zumbach de Kussferdt, signed and dated 1762, is in the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leyden (photograph in the RKD)

See colour illustration

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