Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634 – 1693 Amsterdam)

Portrait of Catrina Pels

inscribed on verso: Catrina Pels/Aetatis.Sue.20.~fecit.1685.
oil on canvas
25 ¼ x 21 inches (4.5 x 53.5 cm.)

Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Millon & Associes, Paris, March 21, 2003, lot 15.

The attractive woman in our painting is Catrina Pels (Amsterdam 1665-1704), the daughter of Jean Lucas Pels, a wealthy entrepreneur and merchant of his time, and Suzanne Noirot.  The coat of arms of the Pels family is identifiable on the reverse of our canvas, which remains unlined, and in the four corners surrounding the image.  The arms of Noiret are in the upper left, accompanied by those of Vegelmans (the paternal branch of the grandmother of the sitter) in the lower left and De Wilhems (maternal branch of the grandmother) in the lower right. 

Our portrait was undoubtedly executed to commemorate the marriage of Catrina Pels and Johannes Bouwens (1663-1720) on February 28, 1685.  The portrait of Catrina's husband (whereabouts unknown) was also painted by Maes and bears the same arrangement of coats-of-arms in the corners (see L Krempel, Studien zu de datierten Gemalde des Nicholaes Maes (1634-1693), Petersberg, 2000, cat. no. 233, pl. 314).  Although Krempel attributes the lost portrait of Catrina's father to Johann Bodecker (op. cit., cat. no. 233a, pl. 382), there seems no compelling reason to doubt the authorship of Maes.  The three paintings must have formed part of a series, as the sizes and placement of arms are almost identical.