This beautiful portrait is of a girl of six or seven years of age; the child wears the white dress, blue robe and the headcloth traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary, and stands, hands gently touching as if in prayer, looking at the viewer with a serene confidence.
At a time when religion was a vitally important part of everyone's life this depiction of the sitter would be understood as showing not only the innocence and purity of the little girl but also expressing a hope that such virtues would remain with her and that she would be protected by God as she went through life.
PHILLIPPE DE CHAMAIGNE (born May 26, 1602, Brussels — died Aug. 12, 1674, Paris)
A Flemish-born French painter, he trained in Brussels, arriving in Paris in 1621. His patrons included Louis XIII, Marie de Médicis, and Cardinal Richelieu, and he became the outstanding French portraitist of the Baroque period.
His artistic style was varied: far from being limited to the realism traditionally associated with Flemish painters, it developed from late Mannerism to the powerful lyricism of the Baroque. It was influenced as much by Rubens as by Vouet.
He was perhaps the greatest portrait painter of 17th-century France.
SIZE: canvas size 18¼ x 15 inches
25 x 22 inches inc. frame
PROVENANCE: English private collection
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Sold...portrait of a Young Girl C.1670; Studio or Circle of Phillippe De Champaigne
