PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY PLAYING THE DULCIMER - CIRCLE OF CASPAR NETSCHER (1639-1684).

Highly desirable 17th century portrait of a young girl, perched, full length, upon a flower strewn bank. Her eyes to front, she wears a loose yellow silk dress and a purple robe. Behind her is a county house where figures can be seen tending the garden. This jewel like and sensitively rendered portrait is house in a fine, swept, antique mellow gold frame.

The sitter plays the hammered dulcimer by striking its strings with two hand held hammers. This free-standing instrument (most frequently trapezoidal but in this case square) is found in many cultures. As a struck string instrument, is considered to be among the ancestors of the piano.

Caspar Netscher (1639-1684)
Spent most of his career in The Hague, where he settled in 1661/2, but he trained in Deventer with Terborch. From his master he took his predilection for depicting costly materials—particularly white satin. He painted genre scenes and some religious and mythological subjects, but from about 1670 he devoted himself almost exclusively to portraits, often for court circles in The Hague.

His reputation was such that Charles II invited him to England (Vertue says that he came, de Piles and Houbraken that he declined). His work—elegant, Frenchified, small in scale, and exquisitely finished—influenced Dutch portraiture into the 18th century, his followers including his sons Constantijn (1688–1723) and Theodoor (1661–1732).

Higher resolution images on request. 
Worldwide shipping available.

Canvas : 24" x 35" / 60cm x 88cm. Frame: 34" x 36" / 86cm x 91cm. 

Internal Ref: 00054

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