Portrait of a Lady Beside a Woodland Stream Holding a Shell C.1690; by Herman Verelst (1641-1702), Antique Oil on Canvas Painting

This elegant portrait depicts a beautiful young lady seated in a wooded area, resting one arm on a rock, before a landscape and a warm evening sky. She is wearing a white smock under russet-coloured silks, loosely held in place by an immense black diamond clasp on the sleeve, and her body is enveloped in a voluptuous swag of azure silk; the costly fabrics and jewels reveal that the sitter was a paragon of a wealthy and privileged society that she belonged to.

Much of the attractiveness of this portrait resides in its graceful composition and the beauty of the youthful sitter. The flowing water in the left margin of the picture and the shell that she holds are compositional devises often used at the time to allude to her potential as wife and mother, recalling Proverbs, Chapter 5, Verse 18: “Let thye fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of thye youth”. Symbolism was a key component to many works of this period and contemporary viewers would have deciphered them immediately. Such images exude a sense of status and Augustan decorum, and were highly influential in transmitting these values into the first half of the eighteenth century. Held in a good quality and condition gilded antique frame.

Herman Verelst was from a great dynasty of painters, with many members achieving great success. Specialising in portraits and still life paintings, he was one of the legions of foreign-born artists working in England at the time. Today, many of his pictures are given to other artists or are simply relegated to that term “circle of” which is a great disservice because he had an ability to render faces and drapery on par with some of the best artists at the time. Herman’s work is quite distinctive in the way he rendered faces and this particular pose was a favourite. His faces were portrayed with great skill often using the sfumato technique which gave them a very smooth feel to the skin with no hard lines, and many known works by him show that he could also render drapery with great affect. Our painting was painted in the 1690’s.

His father, Pieter Hermansz Verelst, was a founder of the Confrerie Pictura, taught him to paint at an early age in The Hague. His brothers Simon Verelst (1644-1710) and Johannes Verelst (1648- after 1718) were painters, as was his nephew, his son Cornelis (c. 1668-1734) and daughter Maria (1680-1744). Herman became a pupil in the Confrerie Pictura in 1663 at the same time as his brother Simon. In 1667 he married the Venetian Cicilia Fend in Amsterdam. He worked in Amsterdam, Italy, Ljubljana, Paris, and Vienna where he was in the service of the Emperor but left when the city was sieged by the Turks. In 1683 he had relocated to London. He died in London in 1702.

Herman Verelst’s work can be seen in museums and in many private collections and stately manors throughout Britain, with signed and dated works right up to 1697 (Portrait of a Young Lady, possibly the Hon. Catherine Cockayne, one of several children of Charles, 3rd Viscount Cullen (1658-88)).

This painting has passed a strict quality and condition assessment by a professional conservator prior to going on sale. It can be hung and enjoyed immediately.

Measurements: Height 144cm, Width 121cm framed (Height 56.5”, Width 47.5” framed)

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