85 - Attributed toJohann Kerseboom,

Attributed toJohann Kerseboom, German fl.1680-1708- Portrait of an officer, half length, wearing uniform over armour; oil on canvas, feigned oval, 91.4 x 71.8 cm. Provenance: Anon. sale, Sotheby's, 24 November 1999, lot 689, as 'Attributed to Kerseboom' (£2,875). Private Collection, UK. Note: Kerseboom was the nephew of the painter Frederick Kerseboom (c.1632-1690). In the 1680s he travelled with Frederick to England, where he eventually established his own practice in London. The present work is characteristic of Kerseboom's portraits of gentlemen, depicting the sitter in armour beneath a red military coat and wearing the very tall, voluminous wig fashionable in the late 17th century. Such wigs were deliberately designed to create an imposing silhouette, with masses of curls arranged around the sides of the head and falling over the shoulders. During the 1680s and early 1700s, wig crowns became progressively higher and the curls increasingly voluminous, with some examples extending halfway down the torso. Comparable portraits by Kerseboom have sold at Christie's, London, on 1 October 2013, lot 440 (£2,125), and at Nagel, Germany, on 10 October 2018, lot 480 (€3,000 hammer). The National Portrait Gallery holds a portrait by Kerseboom of Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds [NPG 5718].