Portrait of a Young Girl with a Spaniel C.1695; Attributed to Johannes Verelst (1648–1734)

In this decorative portrait a young girl is seated on a cushion before a swag curtain above and a window showing a landscape. The creeping ivy augurs marital fidelity and the favourite pet conveys her privileged social status, but also trust and fidelity. The portrayal of pets in portraiture was a favoured theme in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; pets were an important part of life during this period, as they are today. Examples include cats, dogs, squirrels and exotic monkeys and parrots.

The portrait was painted circa 1700.

Johannes Verelst (also John or Johan) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from The Hague. He was highly talented and came from a family of at least ten painters over at least three generations. Of the huge swath of Dutch painters to migrate to the more lucrative England in the last half of the 17th century the Verelst family was amongst the earliest in this period. Simon Verelst was considered to be the most accomplished, fashionable and expensive practitioner of flower painting working in London in the later 17th century.

Johannes established himself in London and was active there as early as 1691 (he was listed as a witness in London in 1691) right up to his death in 1734. He painted still life’s and allegories but it was his portraits that he became particularly well known for – so much that Queen Anne commissioned him to mark an occasion by painting four portraits of four Native American leaders in 1709 - three Mohawk from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) alliance and one Mohican from the Algonquin nations. This delegation travelled to the Court of Queen Anne in London with British military leaders seeking to court support against competing French and their allied Native interests in North America. They are the earliest known surviving oil portraits from life of Native people of North America. In 1977 they were purchased by Canada with a special grant from the Canadian Government. They were featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 2010.

Provenance: Property of The Parochial Church Council of Saint Anselm’s Church, Belmont, Lot 122, Follower of William Wissing

Measurements: Height 104cm, Width 92cm, Depth 12cm framed (Height 41”, Width 36.35”, Depth 4.75“ framed)

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