This portrait, dating from the last decade of Rembrandt's life, depicts Margaretha de Geer, the wife of the extremely wealthy Dordrecht merchant, Jacob Trip. Jacob Trip (1575
- 1661) made his vast fortune from mining, manufacturing iron & from trading with armaments. The Trips married in 1603. They sat for these portraits when they were both in their eighties, just before Jacob's death in 1661. The ' Portrait of Jacob Trip' has less vitality than that of his wife. It is conceivable that it was finished posthumously. Margaretha de Geer is depicted with great honesty. She confronts the viewer directly & her age clearly shows in her hands & face. Not untypical for a woman of her generation & age she wears old-fashioned clothes; the large ruff & gown had been fashionable forty years earlier, in the 1620s. Between 1660-2 the couple's sons, Louis & Hendrick, built the ' Trippenhuis', a grand classicising mansion on one of Amsterdam's canals. It is possible that these portraits were meant to hang there.
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John Calcott Horsley was the nephew of the landscape painter Augustus Wall Callcott & was educated at the Royal Academy. The famous Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was Horsley's brother-in-law. Horsley began his career as a portrait artist but ...

Philips Lucasz. of Middelburg made a very successful career in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He was appointed Councillor General Extraordinary of the Dutch East Indies in 1631. In 1633 he returned to the Netherlands as the commander of a trading fleet & in the following year married Petronella Buys whose family came from The Hague. A portrait of his wife, dated 1635 (France, private collection) is its pendant. The two portraits were painted during a stay in Amsterdam, when Lucasz. received from the Company the gold chain he wears proudly. In May 1635 Lucasz. returned from Amsterdam to the East Indies. He died at sea in 1641. Originally, the left hand was included, but was painted over when the portrait was transformed from its original, rectangular format to its present oval shape. This was probably done at the end of the 17th century. ...

Piero de' Medici (1416
- 1469) was the son of Cosimo ' Pater Patriae', & father of Lorenzo the Magnificent. They were all members
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Julius II belonged to the della Rovere family. He was a forceful ruler, who reasserted his power over the Papal States by military action. He patronised the arts & ordered the rebuilding of St Peter's in Rome. The painter & biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511
- 1574) wrote of Raphael's early years in Rome: ' And at this time... he also made a portrait of Pope Julius in a picture in oils, so true & so lifelike, that the portrait caused all who saw it to tremble as if it had been the living man himself.' The painting seems to have been displayed in the Roman Church of Santa Maria del Popolo which had been redecorated at the expense of the della Rovere family. The format was to be exceedingly influential on subsequent papal portraiture.
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The identification of the sitter, Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1587
- 1658), has been confirmed by comparison with engraved
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The Dominican friar Savonarola was a preacher & a leader in the populist revolution in Florence during the 1490s. His political enemies secured his execution by burning on 23 May 1498, in the Piazza della Signoria. After this he was regarded by some followers as a martyr. This work seem to have been painted somewhat later, about 1500-40. The reverse of this panel depicts the execution of Savonarola & his two companions, Domenico da Pescia & Silvestro Maruffi. ...

The figure '17' in the inscription presumably refers to the sitter's age. The inscription also seems to indicate that he came from Auro in the province of Brescia. He is later recorded as a senior civil servant in Venice & held the posts of ' Scrivan delle Rason vecchie' in 1542 & he was also ' Scrivan of the Scuola della Trinità' in Venice. The pensive mood & assurance of pose are derived from Titian's portraits & perhaps from Giorgione. ...

Suitbertus Hendriksz. Purmerent (1587
- 1650), was born in The Hague & became a Roman Catholic priest in 1615. The identification
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Create your own bespoke print of Peter Paul Rubens’s Portrait of Susanna Lunden from our collection. About this painting Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622-5 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1871 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...