Signed and dated "Jon. Verelst/ P. 1717".
This is an excellent quality portrait with a real sense of the character of the sitter.
This is the age of the 'Augustan' portrait (1690-1744) when the sitter expected to be 'elevated'...an expression of gravitas behind which was culture and intelligence. This was the English way...not for them the smiling, sometimes simpering, expressions painted by the French.
Joseph Addison, famous essayist, poet, playwright and politician and a man of letters, sneeringly described French portraits as "very remarkable for their smiles and a certain smirking Air...bestowed indifferently on every Age and Degree of either sex. The Toujours Gai appeared even in Judges, Bishops and Privy Counsellors.."
JOHN VERELST, also Jan or Johannes (1648-1734), was a Dutch Golden Age painter, working in England.
He was the son of Pieter Hermansz Verelst and brother to Herman and Simon, all artists, along with other family members, Herman, Maria, Cornelis and William.
SIZE: 37 x 31.5 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: Princess Viola von Hohenzollern of Killochan Castle, Scotland.
Image 4 shows the castle and image 5 the Great Hall; the Verelst portrait can be seen on the extreme left.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of a Gentleman in a Red Coat, 1717, by John Verelst.
