Lot 1026 | Two Paintings: Children's Portraits

JONSON VAN CEULEN, CORNELIS
1593 London - 1661 Utrecht


Title: Two Paintings: Children's Portraits.
a) Portrait of a little two year old girl. Oil on wood. 78 x 62cm. Dated top right: Aetatis Sua 2 mens 10 / 1629. Framed.
b) Portrait of a boy in a red costume. Oil on wood. 78,5 x 62cm. Dated top left: Atatis Sua 6 / 1629. Framed.
Verso:
a) on the plate label of the art dealer Ellis & Smith, London.

Listed in the database of the RKD, Den Haag under the ill. nos. 225485 and 225483.

Provenance:
Silver Vaults, London ca. 1920;
Art dealer Lawrence Steigard, New York (TEFAF Maastricht 2009);
Auction Christie's, New York, 27.02.2010, lot 51;
Collection Prof. Dr. Thomas Olbricht, Essen.

Cornelius Johnson van Ceulen is one of the most important English portrait painters of the 17th century, although his family was of Dutch origin and moved across the English Channel for religious reasons. His portraits are countless and mostly depict citizens and courtiers, but there are also portraits of several kings of England, such as Charles I, Charles II and James II.
The artist is described by his contemporaries as one of the most talented and prolific portrait painters who worked in England in the 1620s and 1630s. He was particularly accurate in the reproduction of clothing, which made him a virtuoso in this field. The two portraits of children whose identity is still unknown are proof of this.