Provenance
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby’s, October 30, 1996, lot 60
(as attributed to Cornelis de Vos);
Collection of Giancarlo Baroni
Cornelis de Vos was born in Hulst in Zeeland in circa 1584/5. De Vos's brother
Paulus was also a painter; his sister Margaretha married Frans Snyders in 1611.
The de Vos family moved from Hulst to Antwerp in about 1596, and in 1599
Cornelis became a pupil of David Remeers. Upon completing his apprenticeship
in 1604, de Vos applied for a passport to travel and 'learn his profession', but
there is no evidence of his actually having embarked on this journey. He became
a master in the guild of St. Luke in 1608, was elected dean in 1619, and high
dean in 1620. He became a citizen of the city of Antwerp in 1616. Along with
artists such as Jacob Jordaens, de Vos worked with Rubens on the decorations
for the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi in 1635, and for the Torre de la Parada from
1637. He died in Antwerp on May 9, 1651.
Although much of de Vos's oeuvre is devoted to portraiture, he also painted
Caravaggesque genre scenes, and history paintings strongly influenced by
Rubens in their composition and execution. De Vos was the premier portraitist
of haute-bourgeois and patrician society in Antwerp. His carefully observed and
honest likeliness are intimate and probing, yet are presented in formal settings
that reflect in detail the wealth and social standing of the sitter. While de Vos
was influenced by van Dyck's work from the mid-1620's, his portraits emphasize
more the bourgeois qualities of solid prosperity than the courtly grace and
refinement expressed by van Dyck.1
At the time of the 1996 sale, the painting was seen a firsthand by Drs. Katlijne
van der Stighelen who has since accepted the painting as a fully autograph
portrait by Cornelis de Vos. Drs. Van der Stighelen believes the painting dates
from circa 1630.