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Frans van Mieris the Elder, 'Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Cunera van der Cock', about 1657-8

Key facts
Full title Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Cunera van der Cock
Artist Frans van Mieris the Elder
Artist dates 1635 - 1681
Date made about 1657-8
Medium and support oil on parchment, set into wood
Dimensions 16 × 13.3 cm
Acquisition credit Bought, 1894
Inventory number NG1415
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Cunera van der Cock
Frans van Mieris the Elder
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Cunera van der Cock married the artist Frans van Mieris about a year before he painted this portrait of her. About 120 of his pictures still exist, but although Cunera appears in about a quarter of them, very few are actual portraits of her. The rest are genre paintings in which she is playing a role. He features her long, straight nose, pouting lips and small chin, but the moods of the pictures and the characters she plays differ greatly.

This portrait is one of the more serious views of Cunera. She was about 27 years old and had already given birth to their first son, Willem, when it was painted. Van Mieris portrays her as the perfect modest wife, with her hair immaculately combed back under the white coif.

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