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Two Unknown Girls

Dutch (Frisian) School

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

1600 - 1629

Materials

Oil on canvas in a wooden frame

Measurements

978 x 1219 mm (38 1/2 x 48 in)

Place of origin

Netherlands

Order this image

Collection

Dudmaston, Shropshire

NT 814143

Caption

Two little girls stare out at us across the centuries in a portrait which captures one of the most fascinating moments in European history. We don’t know their identity but many details speak to a lifestyle of luxury and wealth, from their exquisite clothing, gold bracelets and pearl earrings to the richly embroidered textile and gleaming vase behind them. However the most conspicuous object in the picture is that most coveted of commodities in 17th-century Holland: the tulip. Tulips appear in the flower vase, embroidered on the cloth and growing in the garden, glimpsed through the open window. This picture was painted at the height of tulipmania in Holland, a frenzied period when a single bulb could command a price similar to that of a house in Amsterdam. One child holds in her hand three prized tulip flowers with striking striped petals. At the time, striped blooms such as these were the most sought after of bulbs but it wasn’t known that these markings were caused by a virus. It was spread by aphids living in the fruit trees. The gamble of acquiring a bulb, in anticipation of it flowering with the desired ‘break’ in colour, simply added to its allure. Unfortunately, the virus also weakened and eventually killed the bulbs, making them an even riskier purchase. Thanks to modern horticulture, we can enjoy striped, virus-free tulips at a tiny fraction of tulipmania prices.

Summary

Oil painting on canvas, Two Unknown Girls, Dutch (Frisian) School, early 17th century. Full-length portraits of two young girls, standing and holding hands, turned slightly to the left and gazing at the spectator, in an interior, wearing identical red and black dresses with red bonnets and white lace collars; the girl on the left has her right hand at her waist, the girl on the right has two tulips in her left hand; black and white tiled interior with view, on the right, through an open door to a garden with figs. On their left is a petwer vase of flowers.

Provenance

Collection of Francis Darby(1783 - 1850) (presumably the picture would have hung in his house Sunnyside Park in Coalbrookedale); Lady Labouchere inherited the painting from Muriel Cope-Darby (1882-1935); given by Rachel Katherine Hamilton Russell, Lady Labouchere (1908 – 1996) along with the Dudmaston estate in 1978

Credit line

Dudmaston, The Labouchere Collection (National Trust)

Makers and roles

Dutch (Frisian) School, artist

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