17-18C Using Garden Fountains to Search for the Proper Spouse

Style of Caspar Netscher (Dutch artist, 1639-1684) Portrait of a Young Lady at a Fountain

By the 17C & 18C, artists portrayed women & girls, often the eligible daughters of the patrons commissioning the portraits, near a fountain.In these fountain settings, the young lady is often depicted in the mythical realm of Arcady, a fashionable conceit of the time. At the center of Arcady is the Garden of Love, where a figure of Cupid sits atop a fountain. The young lady places her hand in the flowing water...this is a motif much used by Van Dyke & Lely & it makes an allusion to her potential as a wife & mother, recalling Proverbs, Chapter 5, Verse 18 "Let thy fountain be blessed, & rejoice in the wife of thy youth."

Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Unknown Lady at Fountain

Garden fountains were originally purely functional, connected to natural springs or aqueducts & used to provide water for drinking; water for bathing & washing; & water to nurish growing plants. The painting would announce to the viewer that the parent/patron had enough money, taste, & technological expertise to channel the water through an artistic garden fountain. Water was now not just a necessary component of nature, the garden planner could make it an integral component of art both outdoors in his garden & indoors in the paintings on his walls. He could not only interpret nature, he could control it. And in this painting, he could announce his "natural" superiority, & might chose to have the portrait he has commissioned suggest that his young lady was becoming sexually available for the right marriage partner.

1661 Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, 1637 - 1671. Became The First wife of James VII and II.

1664 Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Young Lady by a Fountain

Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Young Lady by a Fountain (For those who did not like a blond, serious sitter, Maes apparently painted this more cheerful brunette.)

Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Egerton (1653-1709)

 Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Young Lady by a Fountain

1650 Attr David Des Granges (British artist, 1611-c.1671) Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon(1633-1678)

1650-70 John Michael Wright (British artist, 1617-1694) Miss Butterworth of Belfield Hall

Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Portrait Of Diana, Countess of Ailesbury

 Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Portrait of a Young Lady

 c 1693–1697 Adriaen van der Werff (Dutch artist, 1659-1722) Lady by a Fountain

Caspar Netscher (Dutch artist, 1639-1684) Portrait of a Lady with a Fountain in a Garden Beyond the Terrace Wall

 1715 Lady Henrietta Crofts, Duchess of Bolton by a fountain

Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Young Girl stops at a garden fountain as her dog drinks the water below.

Style of Pieter Nason (Dutch artist, c 1612-1688-90) Portrait of a young Anna Catharina van Heemskerck (1676-1723) seated by a fountain on a draped garden terrace

Brabant school, the end of the 17C. Young Girl at a fountain.

Barent Graat (Dutch artist, 1628-1709) Portrait of a Girl Cleaning Cherries in a Fountain

Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Young Lady's arm rests on a garden fountain

Barend van Kalraet (Dutch artist, 1649-1737) Lady by a Fountain with a tame Bird

Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) A Young Lady dips her arm in the garden fountain while a dog and child stand nearby

Nicolaes Maes (Dutch artist, 1634-1693) Catherine Peels

1671-80 Style of Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) The Duchess of Lauderdale

Godfrey Kneller (German-born English artist, 1646-1723) Susannah Anlaby (d.1715), later Mrs Foote Onslow