A Younger Brother of Anna Maria Siedonia Mockels
style of Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (Dordrecht 1594 - Dordrecht 1652)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1630 - 1631
Materials
Oil on panel (oak)
Measurements
1130 x 813 mm (44 1/2 x 32 in)
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446718
Caption
This picture is the pendant to the portrait of the sitter’s elder sister, Anna Maria Mockel, which is also at Upton House. Although the sitter was initially thought to be a little girl, he is actually a small boy, still young enough to be clothed in a dress, rather than breeches. In spite of his age, his attire is as sumptuous as his sister’s. The coral beads around his neck were often worn by children as a protection. The Romans thought coral had healing properties, and the power of averting the attentions of the ‘evil eye’.
Summary
Oil painting on panel (oak), A Younger Brother of Anna Maria Siedonia Mockels, in the style of Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp (Dordrecht 1594 - Dordrecht 1652). A full-length portrait of a little boy aged about three, before being breeched, standing to left in an architectural interior with a black and white paved floor, wearing a scarlet frock trimmed with silver braid, white lace collar and cuffs, white apron, scarlet cap with feathers and a double chain of coral beads; he holds a goldfinch on the index finger of the right hand, and a dog is seated beside him. Two coats of arms top left, the left hand one being those of the family of Mockels of Westphalia: per fess or and argent, divided by a fesslet sable, the first charged with an M sable, the second with an acorn with two leaves, vert. Crest: a slipped acorn vert, between wings countercharged or and sable. R.h. coat of arms: or, charged with a label of four points, gules above, and with a zig-zag sable below. Crest: a jester(?) couped, holding a spear, dressed per pale or and sable, his cap of the same, countercharged.
Provenance
Given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948, shortly before his death
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
style of Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (Dordrecht 1594 - Dordrecht 1652), artist previously catalogued as attributed to German (Cologne) School, artist