Caspar Netscher ranks among the most famous and successful portraitists of what has come to be known as Holland's Golden Age of painting. Pupil of Gerard Ter Borch, he enjoyed a thriving career in painting for the English royal court and wealthy Dutch burgers. Our portrait de cabinet is a characteristic example of the international baroque style of which Netscher is a prime proponent. The putti motif in the sculptural urn to the right of our portrait is a convention Caspar used in numerous portraits.  See, e.g., "Portrait of a Couple with Their Two Children", formerly belonging to Lord Radstock, with Sotheby's London December 3, 1997.

Caspar (sometimes spelled "Gaspar") Netscher was a Dutch portrait, genre and history painter of Holland's Golden Age of painting. He belongs to that pantheon of portrait painters who flourished during the years between the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and the accession of William III to the English throne in 1689: Frans Hals, Govaert Flinck, Willem Drost, Ferdinand Bol, Pieter de Grebber, Caesar van Everdingen, Stevers, Maes, Mijtens, to name a few of the principals.

Caspar's date of birth is given variously as 1635, 1636, and 1639. He was born in Heidelberg, and died of the gout in The Hague in 1684. When Caspar was an infant, his father, Johann Netscher, died in Poland in that country's service. His mother fled the devastation of the war and traveled to Holland with her three children, two of whom died en route. She and the two-year-old Caspar were welcomed in Arnheim by a Dr. Tullekens. Caspar later studied with Hendrik Costers, then, from 1654 to 1658, with Gerard Ter Borch in Deventer, where that master had a thriving career in painting for the aristocracy. Around 1659, Caspar traveled to France with the intention of continuing on to Italy. However he stopped in Bordeaux and, in 1659, married Maria Godyn. As of 1661, he was still in Bordeaux. However, the persecution of the Protestants forced the couple to return to The Hague, where Netscher became a member of the Guild in 1662 and was given citizenship in 1668. Beginning in about 1670 he devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture, pursuing the stylistic traditions of Van Dyk, Mijtens, and their circles. The Hague, as seat of the Government and of the Orange court, provided a vast market for the international Baroque style evident in our Portrait. (1)

Among Netscher's pupils were two of his twelve children, Theodor and Constantijn, as well as Johannes Vollevens, Daniel Haring and Jacob van der Does. Netscher was highly successful in rendering the sheen of the satins, silks, velvets and ermines within the quiet interiors of the wealthy Dutch burgers. He painted portraits of many illustrious persons of his time, including those of William of Orange and Mary II of England and of Madame de Montespan. He also painted historical and mythological subjects.

Netscher's works appear in most of the world's great museums, including the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Uffizi in Florence, the Colonna in Rome and many, many others.The Card Party and two portraits hang in the Metropolitan, and his Boy Blowing Bubbles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Netscher's highly-prized drawings can be found in the Graphische Sammlung in Munich, the Fodor Museum in Amsterdam, The Morgan Library in New York, and in countless other private and public collections. (2)

For a fascinating historical account of the golden age of Dutch portraiture and an assessment of the lively state of the market, see Sarah Hamner's article, "A Mirror up to Nature," in the Autumn 1999 number of  Masterpiece Magazine (3)

                                                  

(1)  See Catalogue of Paintings 13th to 18th Centuries, The Picture Gallery, [Die Gemäldegalerie], Berlin, © 1978. English, revised edition, p. 304.

(2)  See Maîtres du Dessin - Dictionnaire, © R.C.S. Libri & Grandi Opere S.p.A., Milan, 1994, p. 348.

(3)  Masterpiece Magazine, Autumn 1999, p. 42-49.