(Antwerp 1614/18–1684)
Equestrian portrait of an elegant couple in the company of a servant,
oil on copper, 43.3 x 38.4 cm, framed

Provenance:
Birthday present from Queen Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to her husband, William I of the Netherlands (died in 1849);
sale of the estate of King William II, The Hague, 12–20 August 1850, lot 81 (for 800 florins to Nieuwenhuis);
Lord Northbrook Collection, London;
owned by the latter’s heirs until after 1927;
P. & D. Colnaghi Gallery, London (1931);
Milton Galleries, London (1946/47);
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 12 July 2001, lot 233;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2005, lot 139;
Private collection, Germany 

Exhibited: Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art 1300–1900, Royal Academy, London, 1927, no. 296 (on loan from Lord Northbrook);
William II and Anna Pavlovna – Royal Splendour of the Dutch Court, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, September 2013–Januar 2014;
Willem II Kunstkoning, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, March – June 2014;
A Royal Passion for Art – William II of the Netherlands and Anna Pavlovna, Villa Vauban, Musée d’Art de la Ville de Luxembourg, July – October 2014

Literature:
Description de la Collection de S. A. le Prince d’Orange à Bruxelles, Brussels, 1837, p. 34;
W. H. J. Weale and J. P. Richter, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures Belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, London/Sydney, 1889, p. 37, no. 42;
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, vol. I, Vienna/Leipzig, 1906, p. 335;
K. Zoege von Manteuffel, in: F. Thieme, U. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, vol. VII, Leipzig, 1912, p. 385;
Pantheon, vol. VIII, 1931, p. 399 (ill.)

Gonzales Coques was a student of Pieter Brueghel III and David Ryckaert II. In 1640/41 he was appointed master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Within a short period of time he became the favourite portraitist of Antwerp patricians. He also had prominent patrons abroad, such as King Charles I of England (Coques is documented to have been in England several times) and Elector William I of Brandenburg. In England, Coque came under the spell of Van Dyck, who inspired him with his elegant portaits, an influence that is also betrayed in the present painting. His proximity to Van Dyck also earned him the nickname ‘Little Van Dyck’. In 1671 he was appointed court painter to Don Juan de Zuniga, then the governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Yet he also entertained contacts to the Northern Netherlands. He received a golden chain from Prince Frederick Henry of Orange as a reward for a number of portraits and a pastoral landscape the prince had acquired. The present painting might be one of those commissioned by the House of Orange.

In 2001, Jan de Maere expressed the opinion that the landscape background in the present painting was by the hand of Jan Wildens and that the horses and the dog were painted by Paul de Vos.