Lot 102: Attributed to Hieronymus Lapis , possibly Venice 1723 - 1798 The Hague A family portrait of a gentleman and his wife, with their two children, seated around a table in an elegant room, in front of a window, a miniature wooden horse-and-carriage on

oil on panel

measurements note 44.3 by 37.3 cm.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
The little known Hieronymus Lapis, who fled to Holland because of religious beliefs, worked in cities like Delft, Rotterdam and The Hague, where he enrolled in the Painters' Guild in 1758. As well as being a portraitist, he also worked as a painter of interior decoration. This sweet family picture can be compared to another family portrait, also attributed to Lapis, in a private collection, The Hague, which was exhibited at the Thema Thee exhibition, Rotterdam in 1978.υ1 The same deep, black eyes, the somewhat naive way of painting, the likeness in posture of the figures and the great attention to detail, such as the lovely horse-and-carriage toy on the table, all indicate a similar hand. The clothing of the sitters, and especially the height of the mother's hair, with its asymmetrical decoration, allow us to date the portrait to the 1770s. We are grateful to Dr. Marieke de Winkel for her help in dating this work. 1. See Rotterdam, Boijmans van Beuningen, Thema Thee, 18 March - 4 June 1978, cat. no. 9.