This is one of the finest portraits by Frans Pourbus the Elder to appear on the market in recent history. Dated 1576, it is a mature example by this Flemish artist, one in which he has captured an exquisitely detailed and vividly engaging likeness of a young lady, aged 17. The graceful features of her face are framed by a delicate lace cap and linen ruff. She wears a patterned maroon bodice decorated with gold stripes and buttons, a gold chain stomacher, a black skirt, a sleeveless jacket and three ornate rings. In her right hand, she holds a small lap dog wearing a collar of silver bells, who has been rendered with great care. This type of toy spaniel no longer exists. It was bred in the sixteenth century at certain European courts, including that of Philip II of Spain, who often gifted these cherished pets to family, royals and aristocrats.¹ It has alternatively been suggested that this dog could be a chihuahua, a breed that would have been rare to Europe in the sixteenth century, brought from the New World to the European courts.

Some compositional similarities can be drawn between this portrait and Pourbus the Elder's Portrait of a Woman with a Dog (1568) in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (inv. no. 833), while more notable stylistic similarities can be found in the face and cost.mes of his Portrait of a young lady (1581) in the Museum of Replica Handbags s in Ghent (fig. 1). The pendant to the present portrait is a three-quarter length Portrait of a Man with a Hound (1576), which also includes an armorial in the corner that has yet to be determined.² While the identities of the sitters remain a mystery, a link to the Le Clerq family has been suggested.³

We are grateful to Dr. Koenraad Jonckheere for endorsing the attribution of the present lot on the basis of images. We are also grateful to Dr. Annemarie Jordan Gschwend for her assistance in identifying this rare breed of spaniel.

1. A portrait of this breed of spaniel is today at Schloss Ambras (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 8312). That portrait depicts Lucidoro (or golden light), a beloved pet of Archduke Ferdinand II. Two other such spaniels appear in the double portrait attributed to Hans Eworth of Philip II of Spain and Mary I of England at Woburn Abbey. Another appears in Arcimboldo’s Portrait of Empress Maria and her family (today at Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck, inv. no. 3448). That dog in that portrait was gifted by Philip II to Maria upon her departure from Spain in 1551.

2. Friedländer 1947, p. 64, reproduced fig. 5.

3. Brackez 2012, p. 40.