Lot 45: LOUISE HOLLANDINE, PRINCESS PALATINE (1622 - 1709) SELF PORTRAIT AS A BENEDICTINE NUN 127.5 by 93 cm. Half length, holding a prayer book Oil on canvas Condition Note: The painting is unlined. There is an L shaped tear (4 x5 cm.) , in the upper left

LOUISE HOLLANDINE, PRINCESS PALATINE (1622 - 1709) SELF PORTRAIT AS A BENEDICTINE NUN 127.5 by 93 cm. Half length, holding a prayer book Oil on canvas Condition Note: The painting is unlined. There is an L shaped tear (4 x5 cm.) , in the upper left hand corner, and two areas of loss or incipient flaking upper left and centre right which will require some attention. The painting is very dirty and the varnish is discoloured. There is an old repaired horizontal 15 cm.tear to the right side of the sitter's habit and a recent surface damage of ca. 5 sq. cms beside this. Ultra violet light reveals scattered old discoloured retouchings, mostly in the areas of flaking described above and to the margins and the habit. Plain gilt wood frame in good condition. Princes Louise Hollandine (1622-1709), was the sixth child of Frederick V of Bohemia and his wife Elizabeth. She was the only one of their daughters to remain in the Hague with her mother, but in 1658 she ran away disguised as a maid to become a Catholic nun. She became Abbess of the Convent of Maubisson in 1664. She learned to paint, almost certainly as a pupil of Gerrit van Honthorst, and is reputed to have made many portraits of her family . Another portrait, sold London, Philips, 18 December 1984, lot 5, may also be a self- portrait. For a discussion of that painting and Princes Louise as an artist see A. von Rohr, `Peint par Madame l'Abbesse' Louise Hollandine von der Pfalz', in Niederdeutsche Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte, XXVIII 1989, p. 155 et passim. Provenance: Sammlung Hausmann Inv. Nr. 214; Schloss Herrenhausen by 1844; Fideikommis-Galerie 1905; Blankenburg circa 1929 Inv. Nr. 0784. Literature: J. Molthan, Verzeichniss der Bildhauerwerke und Gemalde welche sich in den Koniglich Hannoverschen Schlossern und Gebauden, Hanover 1844, p.89, no. 25.