J. Kleinenbergh, Leiden;
His deceased sale, Leiden, 19 July 1841, lot 176, for 6,600 florins to Christianus Nieuwenhuys;
Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879), his inventory and supplement pp. 79, 1r;
Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918), his deceased inventory, 1919, p. 45;
Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942), his deceased inventory, 1942, p. 27;
Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009);
With Thomas Agnews & Sons Ltd., London, 1946;
Where a🍎cquired by the stepfather of the present 🃏owner.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, Supplement, Edinburgh 1842, p. 538, no. 3;
Division of the property of the late Baron Lionel de Rothschild between Sir Nathanial de Rothschild, Leopold de Rothschild, Esq. and Alfred de Rothschild, Esq., 1882, p. 70;
C. Davis, A Description of the works of art forming the collection of Alfred de Rothschild, London 1884, no. 20, reproduced;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. V, London 1913, p. 180, no. 93;
E.K. Waterhouse, Notebooks and research files, vol. 24, p. 42. 

The following condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Structural Condition The artist's panel is providing an even and secure structural support with no evidence of any structural intervention in the past. Paint Surface The paint surface has a discoloured and deteriorated varnish layer and should therefore respond extremely well to cleaning and revarnishing. I would be confident of a considerable colour change and a great improvement in the overall appearance. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows how discoloured the varnish layers have become and how well the painting should respond to cleaning. Only small scattered retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light, the most significant of which are: 1) small lines and flecks of inpainting on the lower part of the sitter's dress, 2) in the lower right corner between the sitter's dress and the right leg of the attendant on the right of the composition, and 3) an area in the upper right of the background on the upper right vertical framing edge, which measures approximately 4 x 1.5 cm. There are other scattered spots of inpainting and there may be other retouchings beneath the old varnish layers that are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in good and stable condition and should respond extremely well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although recorded by Smith and Hofstede de Groot, this beautifully preserved, signed and dated, panel was not known to Marjorie Weiseman when she compiled her monograph on Caspar Netscher.¹  As a late genre work,💜 dated 1669, it holds an important place in illuminating the artist's mature sty▨le whilst also incorporating many of his earliest artistic influences. 

Netscher began his training under the obscure still life and portrait painter Hendrick Coster but his formative years, from 1654-8, were spent in Deventer in the workshop of Gerard Ter Borch.  During these years Ter Borch was dramatically changing his style, moving away from painting humble domestic scenes in favour of a new type of 'high-life' genre scene in which the elegant and wealthy were depicted in opulent settings. His most popular manifestation of this new type was the female toilet: young and beautiful females in the process of completing their attire.²  These developments were to have a profound influence on an entire generation of younger artists ranging from his pupil Netscher to the Leiden fijnschilders.

Netscherꩲ's compositional debt to Ter Borch's development is immediately evident here.  In a subject reminiscent of the older artist's work, the present painting depicts a beautiful young woman, affixing a bracelet of pearls around her wrist, attended by her page in a🎀n elegant, well-appointed interior. However, Netscher was no slavish imitator of his master's style and this work, completed over a decade after he left Ter Borch's studio, is very much his own invention.

As a genre painter Netscher was at his most prolific during the mid-1660s, painting twenty-six known works between 1664-65.³  In these earlier works Netscher deviates from the for🔥mat pioneered by Ter Borch in a number of ways.  Here the setting, although ornate and fill❀ed with luxury objects, is less ostentatious and more intimate than Ter Borch's compositions, the figures are closer to the picture plane and the space described by the table and curtain is smaller. 

Netscher combines this intimacy with a highly polished finish drawn from his interest in the work of the Leiden fijnschilders.  He achieves an almost porcelain-like perfection in the materials of her dress, her pearls and her skin tones, yet also retains an interest in the texture of the paint surface.🍃  This combination of the precise and the painterly results overall in a highly lively work.

By 1667 Netscher's output as a genre painter lessened as he turned increasingly to portraiture. As a late work this painting seems🌱 to combine elements from both. Whilst best understood as a 'high-life' genre scene, the woman's intense gaze, questioning expression and carefully defined features are much more portrait-like.  By combining elements of genre scene and idealised portraiture Netscher is testing the boundaries of established ideas of subject and questioning their validity.  Part of this painting's appeal lies in its ambiguity and it displays many of the elements that made Netscher such a successful artist in both genres.

Another very slightly larger version on canvas was in the collection of Dr. Rudolph Hamburg from which it was sold on 29 March 1951, lot 449; and more recently recorded in a private collection in Helsinki.  The present work was first ♒recorded with J. Kleinenbergh, Leiden, afterwards passing into the Rothschild collection where it remained for at least 100 years.  Since the 1841 sale it has appeared on the market only once in 1946 where it was acquired by the stepfath🌌er of the present owner. 

We are grateful to Michael Hall for his help🔜 inꦯ establishing the correct Rothschild provenance.

1. M.E. Weisman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-century Dutch Painting, Doorsnpijk 2002.
2. For example, A Young Woman at Her Toilet with Her Maid, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  New York, circa 1650-51, and often identified as the first of Ter Borch's 'high-life' genre scenes. See A.K. Wheelock et al., Gerard Ter Borch, exhibition catalogue, Washington 2004, pp. 84-6  no. 17.
3. See Weisman, op. cit., p. 58.