Gonzales Coques
, Flemish, c.1614-1684
Title
Portrait of a Woman in a Blue DressDatec.1645-1660
MediumOil on copper
Dimensions
22.6 x 16.9 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1882
Object numberNGI.185
Label TextThe identity of this young woman is unknown. She wears a silk dress with puffed sleeves and low neckline and has her hair pulled back into ringlets, which was fashionable among Flemish upper-class women around 1650. Coques was the first artist to specialise in small-scale portraits in Antwerp. He was known as ‘the small Van Dyck’, as his elegant style was much indebted to that of much larger portraits by Anthony van Dyck. Coques’s preference for small portraits may have been inspired by the Dutch painter Gerard ter Borch, who visited Antwerp in the 1640s.