Lot 77: Johan le Ducq , Den Haag circa 1629 - 1676 A portrait of a gentleman and his wife and their three children, possibly the Loth family, near a statue of Diana the huntress, in a classical landscape oil on canvas

signed and dated lower right: J l Ducq / 1660 oil on canvas

measurements note 135.1 by 110.2 cm.

Commissioned by the family Loth, directly from the artist;
Their grandchild, married to François Hoyer, Amsterdam;
His grandchild, Hendrik David M(e)ispelblom Beyer, Haarlem, by 1907 (all of the above according to a label on the reverse);
Thence by descent.

THE PROPERTY OF AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY
Painted in 1660, the year the artist joined the Confrerie Pictura in The Hague, such large family portraits are rare in the oeuvre of Le Ducq, who was predominantly an animal painter specialising in dogs. He was one of the co-founders of the Confrerie Pictura in 1656, but officialy registered four years later.υ1 His few known portraits show the clear influence of Jan Mijtens (1614-1670), who was particularly skilled at the representations of family groups. This kind of classical group portraits in which the sitters are clad in colourful dress (often a combination of contemporary fashion and fantasy costumes) and set in an arcadian landscape, were in great demand in courtly circles in The Hague. Soon this type of formal representations were favoured by the city's upper class, such as the sitters in this portrait who, according to a label on the reverse, can be identified as members of the Loth family. 1. E. Buijsen, Haagse Schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Den Haag/Zwolle 1998, p. 301.