The carefully arranged composition, rich in ornamentation and allegory, as well as the opulent costume, nonetheless designates our sitter as a distinguished woman associated with the House of Orange’s court in The Hague. Here represented life-size in her resplendent dress, the young woman, probably in her early twenties, stands facing toward the spectator in front of a dark canopy of trees and beside a rosebush, behind which opens the prospect of a ‘French-style’ garden. A staircase decorated with a balustrade flanked by two female statues leads to an abundant flowerbed, which is watered by a nearby fountain.

The diverse and precise means in which the artist has rendered each particular material and surface within this blossoming backdrop is particularly striking and testifies to the admirable mastery of Pieter Nason in the art of portraiture: the sumptuous dress, composed of pink and gold silks with blue silk lining, is enriched with - seemingly endless - strings of pearls while the sleeves are finished with very fine reticella lace. The fluttering gauze veil behind her shoulder introduces a slight movement to this otherwise static portrait. The headdress comprises of pink and white ostrich feathers, an accessory that one frequently finds in contemporary allegorical portraits, could refer to a deity. The observant treatment of the sitter’s porcelain skin with gentle sfumato subtly contrasts with the shapely design of her hair and richly coloured dress.

A directly comparable portrait, depicting a slightly younger woman, whose resemblance to our own is particularly striking, is thought to depict Agnes Isabella van Raesfelt (1653 – 1674). She is shown dressed as the mythological goddess Diana, which was a common Arcadian guise typical of continental portraits of the period. Her father was Adolf Hendrik van Raesfelt (c.1621 – 1682), Lord of Twickel and a sheriff (‘landdrost’) of Twente. Whilst Adolf Hendrik’s life is well-documented, in Dutch literature and in several portraits, information about his immediate family is limited and inconsistent. It is known that his wife was Amadea Isabella von Flodroff (d.1691), but depending on the resource consulted, and spelling of Raesfelt - also spelled Raesfeld - two different names, and respective dates, are recorded for his (apparently) only child.

With the ‘Raesfeld’ spelling, their daughter is named as Adriana Sophia (c.1650 – 1694), whilst with the ‘Raesfelt’ variant she is listed as Agnes Isabella (1653 – 1674).[1] It seems improbable that two such different names could have been assigned to the same child, whether by family repute or by subsequent genealogical historians. A more plausible scenario is that there were two Van Raesfelt daughters who were both painted by Nason in 1671: the elder (Adriana Sophia) depicted as a beautiful, blossoming woman of means and the younger (Agnes Isabella) shown in the more playful garb of Diana the Huntress.

Other compositionally-similar portraits include that depicting Maria Watkin (private collection, The Netherlands), which presents the sitter within a near-exact setting and includes shared mannerisms and compositional devices, including: a prominent rosebush in the foreground; a classically-inspired planned garden in the background; the respective sitters pinching their dresses with their left hand; and playing with their hair with their right.[2] Those who are identified do not appear to have been connected to one another, apart from all the sitters having been based in either Amsterdam or The Hague. The sophistication exuded by all of these sitters demonstrates an attitude characteristic of other noble female portraits from the period by Netherlandish artists, such as Jan Mijtens (1614 - 1670) and Jacob Huysmans (c.1633 – 1696).

Pieter Nason was active in his native Amsterdam from 1638, where he had probably studied under Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy (1588 – 1656), but moved the following year to The Hague, where he is mentioned among its guild members. In 1647, he took Pieter Cousijn as a pupil and rose to the rank of captain (‘Hoofdman’) of The Hague Guild. He reassumed this post again between 1655 and 1657 whilst also becoming one of the forty-seven founder-members of the company Pictura in 1656. Around 1663, Nason seems to have made a trip to England to visit the court of King Charles II, where he painted the portraits of members of the English nobility and, probably, made contact with Sir Peter Lely (1618 - 1680), England’s most sought-after portraitist. In 1664, Nason was back in Holland, first in Amsterdam and then The Hague, where he resumed his portrait practice, painting Holland's most prominent families.

In 1666 he was summoned to the court of the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William I of Hohenzollern (1620 - 1688), who in 1646 had married the Dutch Stadtholder’s daughter, Louise-Henriette of Orange-Nassau (1627 – 1667). As a result of this marriage, many painters from The Hague were employed by the Brandenburg court in Berlin. Some historians assume that Nason remained there until 1668, painting multiple portraits that attest to his success with the nobility. Nason must have returned to the Netherlands around this time as he was in The Hague when Cosimo de Medici (1642 – 1723), future Grand Duke of Tuscany, commissioned several portraits from him during his trip to the Netherlands in 1668. Similarly, he must have returned in the early 1670s to paint the present portrait and the other comparable portraits as all the sitters were based in the Netherlands at that time. By 1674, Nason was registered as resident of The Hague for the tax census and was still living there in 1688. Though it is not exactly known when he died, his wife declared herself a widow in 1691.

[1] See: https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogie-richard-remme/I5901.php and https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/stamboom-driessen/I21862.php for respective spellings.

[2] Other comparable portraits, also signed and dated 1671, include: Jacoba van Liere (1652 – 1693), Kasteel Duivenvoorde, The Netherlands; An unknown woman, sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, 6 May 2008, lot 177; A young lady, possibly the Princess of Cusance, previously with Richard Philp, London; and Maria Piso (1650-1729), Centraal Museum, Utrecht; and Maria Watkin, private collection.