Portraits of a boy and a girl

DAVID BAILLY

Leiden 1584-1657

Portrait girl
Oil on panel 70,8 cm x 59,9 cm.
Dated ‘Anno 1643’

Portrait boy 
Oil on panel 71,2 x 59,8 cm.    

Provenance
Sale Heberle / Lempertz, Cologne, 4 June 1894, lotnos. 216, 217 (as by Aelbert Cuyp)
Private collection of Fritz Rieter (1849-1896)
By descent for several generations, private collection, Switzerland

Literature
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 1907-1928, vol. II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, no. 132c and 154 (as Aelbert Cuyp)

Comparative literature
David Bailly. Tijd, dood en ijdelheid, exh. cat. De Lakenhal, Leiden 2023

These two portraits of a boy with a dog and a sitting girl were painted by the Leiden painter David Bailly (1584-1657).

The portrait of the girl in the beautiful yellow dress with lace shoulder parts is dated 1643. She is seated in a red chair, a colourfull accent combining nice with the boy in the red suit. The boy is accompanied by a dog. This dog, with exactly the same collar can also be seen on a painting by Bailly now in a private collection Hamburg (David Bailly exh.cat. p. 38, plate 21). His suit can be compared to the portrait of Christian Rosenkrantz from 1641 in Hillerod Nationalhistoriske Museum Castle Frederiksborg (David Bailly exh.cat. p. 32, plate 10).

The portraits were in the 19th century ascribed to Aelbert Cuyp. David Bailly was a long forgotten name at that time.

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