A Child holding a Dog
Govaert Flinck (Cleves 1615 - Amsterdam 1660)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1640 - circa 1642
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
914 x 775 mm (36 x 30 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Holland
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446720
Caption
Although this shimmering picture of a charming toddler and pet dog, set in a landscape, has not always been ascribed to the same artist, including once being attributed to Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp, a Dordrecht artist who specialised in individual child portraiture, it has the poignancy of Rembrandt’s assistant, Govaert Flinck. He also studied with Bartholomeus van der Helst in Amsterdam and created several depictions of children, including a similar little girl, in an interior, signed and dated 1640, now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Child holding a Dog, by Govert Teunisz. Flinck (1615-1660), circa 1640-42. A little girl aged about three is seated on a bank by a tree, facing the spectator; she wears a yellow coat and a white apron over a white dress, lace cap, white cuffs and a large white collar with red bows at her wrists and shoulders, and holds a small black and tan dog, with a red collar and bell, under her right arm; a landscape view left.
Provenance
Collection of Earl of Ellenborough (1790-1871), Southam Delabere, Gloucs. and by inheritance until sale, Sotheby's, 11 June 1947, lot 39, as by A. Cuyp: bought by Leggatt, from whom acquired by Lord Bearsted the same year; 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
Govaert Flinck (Cleves 1615 - Amsterdam 1660), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (Dordrecht 1594 - Dordrecht 1652), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Dutch School, artist previously catalogued as by Aelbert Cuyp (Dordrecht 1620 - Dordrecht 1691), artist
Exhibition history
Flinck in Focus. A Question of Identity in 17th-century Dutch Portraiture, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, 2015 - 2016, no.7 p. 8 The Bearsted Collection, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1955, no.23
References
Flinck in Focus: A Question of Identity in 17th-Century Dutch Portraiture (exh cat) Barber Institute, 23 October 2015 - 24 January 2016, p. 8 Prized Possessions: Dutch Paintings from National Trust Houses (exh. cat.), Holburne Museum, Bath 25 May - 16 Sep 2018; Mauritshuis, The Hague, 11 Oct 2018 - 6 Jan 2019; Petworth House, West Sussex, 26 Jan - 24 Mar 2019., p. 24