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Seventeenth Century Portraits: What was the question?
In fact, the basic questions on seventeenth century Dutch portraits are always the same: who is it, who's done it, when was it and what for! There are as many of these portraits as there were wealthy clients and there were numerous portrait painters. Nevertheless, it is always with some excitement that we start investigating a 'new' portrait.
Needless to say that, in this case, we are not talking about one of the more famous painters that were active during the period. This painting is the kind of portrait that we consider to be in the realm of contemporary formal portrait photography. But than, of course, from the seventeenth century and painted. A very high quality painting indeed, and, as often with these portraits they tend to come alive when you get closer to them. When you touch the paint and observe how skilful this slender hand is executed, how easy the drapes of the garments flow: than you will start to understand the passion that we have for these old paintings. And however serious -people depicted on these portraits rarely laughed- or austere, courageous or demure -the ladies of course- they appear to be, they are also very human and abridge the ages between then and now with ease.
Did this start to make you as excited for Dutch seventeenth century portraits as we are? The research on this particular portrait has yielded very interesting results.
The scientific research Bazuin & de Blécourt executes, concentrates on seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish paintings. Sometimes tedious, most times intriguing, our research aims to uncover the layers of history and provide answers to the basic questions and many more. We are convinced that, to the paintings themselves, this adds besides knowledge a new touch of life.
This portrait, like a few others on which Bazuin & de Blécourt have conducted art historical research, will be offered for sale shortly.
To learn more about this appealing portrait of Pieter van Loon, who was a director (‘bewindvoerder’) at the Dutch East India trading company VOC, and the process of identification and attribution Bazuin & de Blécourt is happy to offer you a summary of the research report.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
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