Oil on canvas in a reproduction gilt frame.
The sitter, standing by a stone balustrade and looking at the roses, seems to have become aware of the viewer and turns with a half smile and a mildly inquiring look.
This is a fine quality painting showing the expertise of the artist in the depiction of very different things...the fresh young skin of the sitter, the hard stone of the balustrade, the fragility of the flowers and the soft lustrous silks of the girl''s clothing.
The flowers are highly symbolic, they are the attribute of Spring personified...and the girl is in the Spring of her life. They also represent Smell, one of the Five Senses, and of the goddesses Flora and Aurora. They are sometimes the attribute of Hope and they represent the fleeting quality of life and the evanescent quality of childhood.
The rose, of course, is also a symbol of love.
ABRAHAM VAN DEN TEMPEL (c.1622 – 8 October 1672) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
He probably learned painting from hi
...s father, also a painter, but who died when he was still quite young, in 1636. That is the same year that he moved to Amsterdam, where he stayed until 1647, whereupon he moved to Leiden.
According to Houbraken he was the son of a Mennonite preacher in Leeuwarden who was a respected art teacher. His father was Lambert Jacobsz (or Jacobszoon), who had taught Govert Flinck and Jacob Adriaensz Backer in their youth, both of whom were artists from Mennonite families.
Abraham took the name Tempel because when he studied in Leiden, he lived in a house there with a relief of a Tempel in the keystone. He became a pupil of Jacob Backer, and studied mathematics at Leiden University. He met with great success with the Leiden city council, earning several generous commissions, including a series of three large allegorical paintings on the cloth industry of Leiden for the Cloth Hall which still hang in their original place today in the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal.
He became Master of the Guild of St. Luke in 1657 and in 1659 he was Chartermaster. In 1660 he returned to Amsterdam. His pupils were Frans van Mieris the Elder, Carel de Moor, Michiel van Musscher, Ary de Vois, and Isaac Paling.
Our thanks to Villa Nuova Fine Arts.
SIZE: 31.50 x 27 inches framed. (80 x 68.5 cm)
Canvas size: 24 x 19.5 inches (61 x 49 cm).
PROVENANCE: private collection.
VERSO: old printed label: ''Maas. Portrait of a girl plucking roses''.
Internal Reference: 8655N
Antique ID Number (AIDN): SA165756
Dateline of this antique is 17th Century
Height is 80cm (31.5inches)Width is 68.5cm (27.0inches)Depth is 6cm (2.4inches)
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