(Amsterdam 1623/24 – after 1676)
Portrait of a young girl as Ceres,
oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Salander O’Reilly Galleries, New York;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 9 June 2010, lot 290 (as Jürgen Ovens);
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 13 April 2011, lot 502;
Private collection, Vienna

We are grateful to David de Witt for confirming the attribution of the present painting to Jan van Noordt on the basis of a photograph. He dates it to around 1670.

De Witt wrote (private communication): ‘The handling of this portrait indicates a date of around 1670 and places it among the most beautiful works in van Noordt’s oeuvre: both depictions of a Boy with a Falcon in the Wallace Collection, London, the Portrait of a Woman (with Hall & Knight, London) and the large family portrait in the Museum in Dunkerque. By this period the artist knew how to combine powerful concentration, sweeping movement, smoothly modelled figures, and flamboyantly brushed drapery passages accentuated with daring, loose strokes of impasto in the highlights. All these aspects are evident here. Especially striking touches include the grapes and leaves on the left, the modelling of the face and the well-placed curls of the hair.’

The present painting is listed in the RKD database under no. 214187 (as ‘possibly Jan van Noordt’).