Lot 571: DIRCK DIRCKSZ. SANTVOORT AMSTERDAM CIRCA 1610 - 1680

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG CHILD, FULL LENGTH, DRESSED AS A SHEPHERD AND HOLDING A PIPE, A LAMB BESIDE HIM

measurements note
99.5 by 68.6 cm.; 39 1/8 by 27 in.

oil on canvas, in an English carved and gilt wood frame

NOTE

Dirk Santvoort was the son of the painter Dirck Pietersz. Bontepaert under whom he and his elder brother (the landscape painter Pieter Pietersz. Santvoort) almost certainly studied. In 1636 he became a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in Amsterdam. And was soon to become one of the leading portrait painters Amsterdam during the mid 17^th century, particularly specialising in the portraiture of children.

The earliest signed portrait of a child is the Portrait of Willem van Loon in the Museum van Loon, Amsterdam, which is dated 1636, and there exist no dated pictures after 1645. It would seem most likely that the present portait was painted during the early 1640's, particularly when the dress is compared to that of the Portraits of Marinus and Clara Alewijn in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam dated 1644.