Peter Entwisle finds a rare gem in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's new exhibition "Ladies and Gentlemen: At A Glance"
It's amazing what turns up, even so far from Europe. A while ago I was shown a picture of a picture, the original of which was in southern New Zealand.
It is soon to be exhibited at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in "Ladies and Gentlemen: At a Glance", which runs from December 17 until January 22, 2012.
It's the 17th-century portrait of a woman, young at the time, but later influential in Continental politics.
It's called Lady Boudergem, which is a puzzle, but is in any case an attractive portrait.
The artist was someone in the circle of Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638). The sitter is Amalia von Solms-Braunfels, 1602-1665, sometime lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth of Bohemia, the "Winter Queen", a sister of Charles I of England.
Elizabeth married a German prince. Amalia was her lady-in-waiting. A Dutch man wanted to have Amalia as his mistress but his brother made sure he married her and she ended up the Princess of Orange.
The painting shows Amalia in her early 20s before she became heavily jowelled - as we see her in later portraits.
Old paintings often have a confusing undergrowth of mis-attribution, which was the case here, as it was also unclear who had owned it.
The present owner thought the portrait might have been at Warwick Castle but it had been at Combe (or "Coombe"), where it was known in the 1860s and attributed to an Italian artist Zucchero (1539/40-1609), although he was too early to have produced it.
That was according to the record of works held by the Craven family at Combe Castle in 1866 now in the National Portrait Gallery in London. But the significant fact was that the painting had been in that collection.
It had also been suggested the artist might be Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) or Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661), but neither seemed quite right.
The work had been sold at Sotheby's in 1968 and offered again at Christie's in 1969, when it was passed in and then given by the seller to the person who owns it now.
There was confusion around this that took a while to sort out, but eventually all became clear.
The painting had been sold from the Craven collection at Sotheby's and was most likely by an artist close to Moreelse. What was not at all clear was who Lady Boudergem was.
The name is written across the top of the portrait but, like many such inscriptions, is not very helpful. It was put there about 100 years after the painting was made and might reflect a more or less accurate memory. Also, it seems an Anglicisation of a Dutch or Flemish name.
There is a huge number of extant 17th-century portraits.
Determining the identity of their subjects is not exactly easy. Many remain anonymous.
This case was helped by the re-establishment of the picture's provenance, its history of ownership.
This painting had belonged to the Earls of Combe, the first of which, William, had been an ardent champion of Elizabeth of Bohemia, as mentioned above, sister of Charles I of England but also wife of Frederick V the Elector Palatine.
He ill-advisedly accepted the crown of Bohemia but, with his wife, had to abandon the place after only one winter - hence her sobriquet "the Winter Queen".
She spent most of the rest of her life in exile, in The Hague in the Netherlands, before returning to London - with her pictures - where she died in 1662. William Craven (1608-1697) inherited the collection either then or from her son, Prince Rupert.
This meant the woman in the portrait was likely to be someone in the Winter Queen's court circle.
There are many paintings of Amalia von Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), the German version of this Dutch princess' name.
They mostly show her in middle life when she was the matriarch widow of the Prince of Orange.
As a young woman from a rather obscure family she was lady-in-waiting to the Winter Queen, where she caught the eye of Frederick Henry, brother of the Prince of Orange, hereditary ruler of the Netherlands.
Frederick wanted to have her as his mistress but as the prince was dying he made his brother swear to marry her, transforming Amalia's prospects.
Instead of being Elizabeth's servant, she became her landlady and patron when her husband-to-be became prince.
I looked at many images trying to find a match for Lady B but eventually got lucky. You don't often find a nice, neat fit but here was one that was perfect.
It was a privately owned painting that had been lent to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery some years ago.
It was painted by Dutch artist Michiel van Miereveld (1567-1641) in 1627 and depicted the youthful Amalia - a dead ringer for Lady Boudergem.
I contacted the SNP's curator, David Taylor, who agreed and described the portrait of Lady B as "very beautiful".
He also made the illuminating observation that she is dressed as for a masque, a costumed performance for which even courtiers would wear special dress.
I had spent quite a bit of time trying to puzzle out who "Lady Boudergem" might be. It dawned on me it might be the name of a character in a masque.
There is one, not unlike it, which means "Lady Bountiful".
The Miereveld painting shows Amalia wearing ribbons around her waist and at her elbows.
Their colour is not very clear, but clear enough to see they are orange like the one Lady Boudergem is wearing - as of course she would, even as a very youthful princess of that house.
If you want confirmation, there it is, staring one in the face.
In the painting at the Dunedin gallery, she looks suitably demure. But as a wife, widow and the effective Regent of the Netherlands through her son's and grandson's minorities, she had a substantial influence on affairs.
She is credited with having a large role in shaping the Peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War, and secured the marriages that made her grandson King William III of England.
She has been described as intelligent but arrogant and not very beautiful.
As Lady Boudergem she seems none of those, but a little watchful, as she probably needed to be.
The portrait was probably painted near the end of the 1620s.
Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.
