Lot 1: Attributed to Catharina van Hemessen (Antwerp 1528-after 1587 ?Antwerp)

Attributed to Catharina van Hemessen (Antwerp 1528-after 1587 ?Antwerp)
Portrait of a lady, half-length, in a black dress with red sleeves, and a white bonnet
inscribed and dated 'HINC VIDE QVALIS HONOS VVLTVS ELORENTE IVVENTE ÆTAT 31 1550' (along the circumference)
oil on panel, tondo
5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm.) diam.

with Robert Finck, Brussels, from whom acquired by the father of the present owner in 1980.

The Property of a European Private Collector (Lots 1 & 2)
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This unpublished work accords well with the eight signed, small-scale portraits that are known by this rare artist. The daughter of Jan Sanders van Hemessen, from whom she also received her artistic training, Catharina was 20 years old when she painted herself in elegant dress at an easel for her earliest known dated work - a Self-Portrait of 1548 (Basel, Kunstmuseum). In 1554 she married Chrétien de Morien, an organist in Antwerp Cathedral, and no paintings by Catharina have survived dated after 1552, suggesting that she may have abandoned her career only a few years after her marriage. Her portraits, which often adopt the format of the Antwerp master Antonis Mor, are notable for their considerable delicacy and sensitive rendition of stylish costume.