Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 17th Century Portrait Painting to the 17th Century.
This portrait very sensitive to character, beautifully drawn and meticulously painted.
The sitter is LUCY HOLLIER (nee Knowles). Hollier, a widower of 29, married Edward Molins's niece Lucy Knowles, who was not quite 16.
Thomas Hollier and Lucy produced four sons and five daughters; six of these children were married before Lucy's death on I5th August I677.
Lucy is shown wearing very expensive black clothes, fine lace, and a gold bracelet. She holds a book to demonstrate that she can read at a time when many were illiterate.
THOMAS HOLLIER was born in Coventry in 1609, and from 1629 trained in London as a surgeon. He worked at both Barts and St Thomas’s Hospitals, the latter for 53 years.
He is famous for operating on Samuel Pepys for the removal of a large bladder stone in 1658. This was in the days when such surgery without anaesthetics or antiseptics often led to death. In 1662, Thomas did 30 consecutive stone operations without losing a single patient. He became a close friend of Samuel Pepys and Robert Boyle.
CORNELIUS JOHNSON (Jonson, Jansen, Van Ceulen) 1593-1661 was born in London, the son of Flemish emigres.
Although Waterhouse thought he was trained in Holland it seems more likely (as Collins Baker has it) that Marcus Gheeraerts was his master in London.
Johnson is the most satisfying and 'English' of the portraitists working in England at time. He has a fine technique with a restrained and introspective style, with careful attention to the costume details.
His accurate portraits are never flattering but a sober and objective portrayal of his usual sitters: the rich merchant class, the gentry and lesser nobility. His style, and that of his Circle is easily identified by its coolness and restraint.
SIZE: 36.25 x 31 inches framed.
PROVENANCE: By family descent. (A card with much more information accompanies the painting) The final image shows the portrait hanging (upper right) in the Abbots Room, Flaxley Hall. (Messel Family Archives)
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 17th Century Portrait Painting to the 17th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art Profile Page
Portrait of Lucy Hollier (1623-1677); Circle of Cornelius Johnson.
