An Unknown Lady holding a Miniature, 1680-89 (oil on canvas)

An Unknown Lady holding a Miniature, possibly Charlotte Bridgeman, Lady Myddelton, attributed to Jan van der Vaart (Haarlem 1647 – London 1721), 1680s. A three-quarter length portrait of a young woman, seated in a landscape, upper part of her torso turned slightly to right, head almost facing, gazing at spectator, wearing a blue décolleté dress over a white shift, with a brown cloak and red drapery and a veil in her hair. Her right hand is resting, palm upwards on her lap with a clutch of leaves including a rose and orange blossom and her left arm rests on a plinth covered in a drape, and from her forefinger and thumb hangs a miniature, representing a young man in a brown coat and long white collar and long blonde ringleted hair, of around 1660-70. Possibly Charlotte Bridgeman, Lady Myddelton, d. 1694; 2nd wife of Sir Thomas Myddelton, 2nd Bt who died ten years before she did in 1684. Married 1677. The young man in the miniature, who seems of a previous generation, does not resemble him or her father.