Portrait of a lady, identified as Maria Mollen (1555-1621), three-quarter-length, in a black fur-trimmed gown, seated at a table with a book

Details

Michiel van Mierevelt (Delft 1567-1641)
Portrait of a lady, identified as Maria Mollen (1555-1621), three-quarter-length, in a black fur-trimmed gown, seated at a table with a book
signed, inscribed and dated 'michiel van / miereveld' (lower left, inside the book cover) and 'Ætatis 51 / A 1615' (centre right)
oil on panel
42 x 33 1/8 in. (106.7 x 84.2 cm.)

Provenance

Dorothea Christina Minette Roëll van Benthem van den Bergh (1875-1956), Amsterdam, by 1952.
Anonymous sale; Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, 18 June 1957 (=1st day), lot 72, sold as a pair with Nicolaes Gael.
Private collection, Amsterdam, by 1986, and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

W. Kloek et al., Dawn of the golden age: Northern Netherlandish art, 1580-1620, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, 1993, p. 27, fig. 20, as 'Portrait of a 51-year-old woman'.

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Three centuries portraiture in the Netherlands, 29 June-5 October 1952, no. 102.

Brought to you by

Lucy Cox

lcox@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2243

Lot Essay

This portrait, signed and dated to 1615, has traditionally been identified as portraying Maria Mollen, the Regent of the Meisjeshuis (The Girl's House) in Delft. A charitable institution founded in 1578, it had been established to support and educate orphaned girls in the town. She was painted by Mierevelt a year after the death of her husband, whose portrait was posthumously included by the painter and his son Pieter in the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Willem van der Meer, painted in 1617 (Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, inv. No. PDS 275).

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