The romantic fantasy of shepherds and shepherdesses living in the wilds of arcadia in greece was a favored theme in ancient poetry that was revived in renaissance italy and around 1600 in the netherlands. In the 1620s, honthorst and cornelis van poelenburch created a fashion in elite circles for portraying young people in this way. The sitter here may be catherina elizabeth von hanau (1607-47) who married in 1628. In any case, she is a noblewoman from the court in the hague; an engraving of this portrait is among those of the highest aristocracy reproduced in a publication of 1640, "the true portraits of some of the greatest ladies of christendom disguised as shepherdesses. " honthorst flourished in rome and utrecht as a painter of tavern and religious scenes. Turning to portraiture, he enjoyed the patronage of the court, with assistants preparing portraits for him to touch up. Object Type: painting. Genre: portrait. Date: circa 1628 (Baroque). Place of creation: The Hague, Netherlands. Dimensions: height: 75.4 cm (29.6 in); width: 62 cm (24.4 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Walters Art Museum. Workshop of Gerrit van Honthorst - Portrait of a Lady of the Court as a Shepherdess - Walters 372457
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