Lot 11*,TP
Spanish Schoolcirca 1680 Portrait of a young girl with her four brothers, standing full-length with a dog
3 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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Spanish School, circa 1680
Portrait of a young girl with her four brothers, standing full-length with a dog
oil on canvas
135 x 205cm (53 1/8 x 80 11/16in).
oil on canvas
135 x 205cm (53 1/8 x 80 11/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Presumably the sitters and thence by descent to the present owners, a noble European family
The present lot shows a richly attired young girl and presumably her four brothers, possibly on the occasion of her engagement with the presence of the dog at her feet perhaps as a representation of Fidelity. The eldest of the siblings, the heir to the title, stands at the far left of the composition holding a letter and one of the younger brothers, most probably destined for a career in the church, stands to the right in cardinal's robes.
The costume, particularly of the young girl, with its restricted colours, suggests a dating of circa 1680 for the present portrait. The lace bertha following the horizontal neckline, voluminous sleeves with lace at the cuffs and the bodice that comes to a point below the waist all appear, for example, in the portrait of Queen Marie Louise of Orléans, dated to circa 1679, now in the Museo del Prado (inv. no. P007190). It was also in the later 17th Century that Spanish women started wearing their hair down and swept across their forehead, as can be seen in the portrait by Cornelis Schut, signed and dated 1682 (sale Christie's, London, 9 July, 2014, lot 164) of a young woman from Seville.