Study of a Young Woman in Profile

Salomon de Bray (Dutch, 1597–1664)

1636

Medium/TechniqueOil on panel

Dimensions26.7 x 20.5 cm (10 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.)
Framed: 41 x 34.9 x 7.9 cm (16 1/8 x 13 3/4 x 3 1/8 in.)

Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art

Accession number2017.4184

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

This beguiling image probably wasn’t a commissioned portrait but was a tronie, or head study. The sitter was likely an artist’s model, for she also appears in other paintings by this artist and in another tronie by fellow Haarlem painter Pieter de Grebber. Profile likenesses are relatively rare in 17th-century Dutch painting but were more common in Dutch medals. Look in the case to your right, towards the end of the gallery, for a display of medals.

ProvenanceProbably Robert Spencer (b. 1640 - d. 1702), 2nd Earl of Sunderland, Althorp, Northamptonshire [see note 1]; 1733, by descent to John Spencer (b. 1708 - 1746), Althorp, Northamptonshire [see note 2]; by descent to Albert Edward John Spencer (b. 1892 - d. 1975), 7th Earl of Spencer, Althorp, Northamptonshire [see note 3]; until the mid-1980s, passed by descent through the family. 1987, Johnny van Haeften Ltd. (dealer), London [see note 4]. By 2002, Hinrich Bischoff (b. 1936 - d. 2005), Bremen; January 22, 2004, Bischoff ("Property of a Private Collector") sale, Sotheby's, New York, lot 62. Private collection, France [see note 5]. July 8, 2009, anonymous ("property of a gentleman") sale, Sotheby's, London, lot 7, sold to Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., for Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA; 2017, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 14, 2017)

NOTES:
[1] See Historical Note in Garlick's "Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp," Walpole Society 45 (1974), pp. xiii-xv.

[2] The painting is recorded as "A Girl's Head in an Oval by Bremar" in the 1742 inventory of John Spencer, recorded in Garlick's "Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp," Walpole Society 45 (1974), p. 101. Both the 2004 and 2009 Sotheby's sales entries note that the painting was listed in the 1750, 1802 and 1851 inventories of Althorp, misattributed to Bramer. In Garlick's transcription of the 1750 and 1802 inventories (pp. 106-116, 117-124) there are no paintings listed under the name Bramer or de Bray, though "A Girl's Head" and "A Woman's Head" are listed, respectively, without an artist. The Catalogue of the Pictures at Althorp House (1851) does not list this painting under Bramer or Bray, but does record unidentified female portraits that cannot be verified.

[3] The painting was lent by The Earl Spencer to Agnew's "Exhibition of Pictures from Althorp," in 1947. See Waterhouse review in Burlington Magazine (March 1947), p. 77.

[4] Frederik Duparc et al., Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), pp. 102-103, cat. no. 13, states that the painting was on loan to the Staatliche Museum, Kassel, from the late 1980s until 2002 (no. L. 1102).

[5] The 2009 Sotheby's catalogue does not mention a previous private French collection. This information comes from Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 4).