Artist: Godaert Kamper
Date: 1656
Size: 89 x 67 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
This 1656 portrait by Godaert Kamper is of a 60-year-old woman, as stated in the inscription at top right. Her identity is unknown. The starched and lace-edged whisk collar and wide cuffs were the fashion of the day. Her attire is otherwise reasonably sober; for example, the sections of the collar are not joined together with a ribbon or a jewel, which was not uncommon at the time. Her jewellery is restricted to just a chain around her cap, earrings and a ring set with precious stones on the index finger of her right hand. The object she is holding looks like a cylindrical container, possibly a gloves case; it is difficult to make out because the left plank of the panel has been completely overpainted.6 The work appears quite flat, due both to the almost uniform background and to the lack of modelling in the face, which accentuates the sitter’s severe look. Kamper’s earlier pictures are generally livelier, such as his genre-like portraits of gentlemen making music.7 A 1651 likeness of an unidentified 34-year-old man is already starting to display the influence of Bartholomeus van der Helst, and that at a time when Kamper had not yet even moved to Amsterdam, where the former was active.8 The inferior, if not anomalous execution of the Rijksmuseum painting is surprising. Since the woman is turned slightly to her right, the panel may have had a pendant in the form of a portrait of her husband, but nothing at all is known of it. Richard Harmanni, 2023 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
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