Flemish School, circa 1640

Full-Length Portrait of a Young Girl

Oil on canvas, 121 x 87.3 cm (47.6 x 34.4 inch); contained in a carved partially gilded oak frame decorated with faux tortoise shell

Provenance
~ Collection of the painter Antoon van Welie (1866 – 1956)
~ His sale, Mak van Waaij, Amsterdam, 7 April 1936, lot 93, reproduced, sold for 750 guilders
~ Collection Barons Van Harinxma thoe Slooten, The Netherlands, until 2024

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This charming full-length portrait of a young girl, wearing a richly trimmed dress and lace collar and holding a fan, shows the juvenile sitter standing on a black and white chequered stone floor, casually beholding the viewer. In the early twentieth century the portrait was part of the collection of the Dutch society portrait painter Antoon van Welie (1866–1956). When it was sold from his collection, it was catalogued as a work by Simon de Vos – in fact, the auctioneers must have meant the Antwerp portrait painter Cornelis de Vos (Hulst c.1584 – 1651 Antwerp), who painted several portraits of children. However, the handling of our mysterious portrait does not quite match with De Vos’s technique, and an alternative attribution to Justus Sustermans (Antwerp 1597 – 1681 Florence) has also been suggested.