Portrait of a Lady as the Goddess Diana C.1640; Circle or Studio of Jan Mytens.

Oil on canvas in black and gilt frame, modern but of correct type.

The young sitter is depicted in a landscape, dawn breaking to her left.

This beautifully executed portrait captures the shimmering quality of the sitter's garments...the silk, fine linen and delicate gauze all complement the delicacy with which the girl's face is painted.

The artist has expertly captured a sense of movement as the lady seems to move across the canvas, turning her head to regard the viewer.

The sitter holds a bow, her hound by her side.

The fashionably, and expensively, dressed young lady is depicted as Diana the Huntress, goddess of the hunt, moon and birthing.

The celestial character of Diana is reflected in her connection with light, inaccessibility, purity and virginity; all desirable attributes for a girl who was on the marriage market.

JAN MYTENS (Mijtens) (1614-1670) was a Dutch Golden Age artist, he worked in The Hague as a portrait painter for over thirty years painting those loyal to the House of Orange as well as a number of British visitors. His work was much admired and he was very influential in Dutch portraiture.

MIJTENS (MEYTENS, MYTENS):

Dutch family of painters of Flemish origin. The earliest known artist of this family was Aert Mijtens (1541-1602), a history and portrait painter who worked in Naples and Rome. His brother Martin Mijtens, a saddle and coach-maker, fled to the northern Netherlands and had two sons who also became painters: Daniel Mijtens I, who was prominent in England for a period as a portrait painter in the Stuart court, and Isaac Mijtens (c. 1602-1666), a portrait painter in The Hague.

Jan Mijtens was a nephew of these brothers and father of the portrait painter Daniel Mijtens II (1644-1688). Martin Mijtens I, himself a son of Isaac, moved to Sweden where he worked as a portrait painter in Stockholm, while his son Martin van Meytens II later became a portrait painter at the imperial court in Vienna. Several other minor members of the Mijtens family established reputations as painters.

SIZE:43.5 x 34.5 inches canvas size.

PROVENANCE:

*Collection of Dr. Kurt Tchiassney, Vienna.

*Willed to a friend for his collection.

*By descent.

*Christie's, New York 2011.

*Private Collection, Yorkshire, England.