Portrait of Johanna van Diemen, aged 57, bust-length, in a cartwheel ruff

The pictorial style and format was one that the artist employed with regularity in the 1640s, particularly in the portrayal of female sitters. Comparable examples may be cited in the portrait in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and the Portrait of Johanna van Diemen, of 1647, recently sold in these Rooms, 17 April 2002, lot 42 (£40,000). The similarites with the latter work are striking and Dr. Alan Chong, to whom we are very grateful for his assistance in catalguing this lot, considers it likely that it is the same sitter depicted here, despite the anomalous dating of the two works.