A Bust Length Portrait Of A Young Boy, Circle Of Jacob Huysmans (1630-1696)

Jacob Huysmans (1630-1696), Circle of

Title: A bust length portrait of a young boy dressed in fine period attire

Period circa 1650-1700

Medium: Oil on canvas

Provenance: From a leading UK auction house and private UK collection .

From a private London collection

Overall measurements including the ornate gilt frame are 82cm x 72 cm x 5cm and the pairing itself measuring 63cm x 51cm

Jacob Huysmans was a Flemish portrait painter. He immigrated to England from Flanders shortly before the Restoration of 1660 and quickly became one of the leading portrait painters at Charles II's court. His most important works include a full-length portrait of Queen Catherine of Braganza as a shepherdess and another of the queen as St Catherine of Alexandria. He was thought to be favoured by Queen Catherine because of their shared Catholicism. Huysmans's portraits adhere to the continental fashions of the time. They often depict his female sitters in disguise, either as saints and shepherdesses or in elaborate costumes

Huysmans trained in Antwerp under Frans Wouters. He was attached to the court of the queen, Catherine of Braganza, a fellow-Catholic, and he called himself ‘Her Majesty’s Painter’. When the diarist Samuel Pepys visited Huysmans’s studio in 1664 he saw two portraits of the queen, as a shepherdess and as St Catherine of Alexandria, which he said were painted “‘most like and most admirably”. Many important patrons sat to Huysmans, and he was a serious rival to the king’s official painter, Sir Peter Lely.

Huysmans' style has been described as exuberant. His style and handling of paint and application of colour are close to the Italianate Baroque style of Anthony van Dyck. His palette is characterized by the use of high-keyed colours, reddish lights in the flesh tones, and a smooth, glossy finish. Huysmans was particularly skilled in rendering the rich colours and textures of sumptuous clothes worn at the court. He liked showing the interplay of light, colour and contrasting textures, crumpled satin against porcelain skin or glossy ringlets interwoven with jewel-like flowers.

Further research and expert consultation has, however, identified the work as being more closely aligned with the work of Jacob Huysmans, hence the present work being sold as Circle of Jacob Huysmans. With this particular work, the reddish lights in the beautifully radiant flesh tones, the light brightness of the reds in the costume, the skillful execution of the drapery with its shawdowed creases and folds, and the boy's wonderful ringlets are characteristic of Huysman's work.

Condition report: In very good conditions having been restored most likely within the last 20 years.

The painting has been lined and there is fine craquelure throughout but only visible unless under magnification on the sitter. The paint surface is stable and the canvas is in good tension. There are no patch repairs.

The frame is a high-quality, hand carved period frame in good condition with just minor abrasions in a few areas. We are offering the frame as a gift (see notes below).

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Note:

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The frame is a gift and is therefore being provided to you at no additional cost. Any damages to the frame during transit do not give the buyer a basis for a claim or validate a request for the cancellation of a sale.

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