Charlotte Brabantina of Nassau

The child’s portrait in vertical format shows Charlotte Brabantina wearing court attire before a dark background. She is sitting on a wooden chair with a high backrest. In her left hand she holds a pair of cherries, while bringing a cherry to her mouth with her right. Charlotte is wearing a heel-length red dress with an apron and a ruffled cap on her head. Her feet do not reach the ground, from which we infer she is a toddler. The wooden chair on which she is sitting has turned feet; the backrest is decorated with brocade fabric. To the right in the background, a brighter room with a fireplace decorated with two sculptures is visible. This portrait belongs to a series commissioned from the Antwerp painter Daniel van den Queborn. These children’s portraits are among the painter’s earliest works. William of Orange, the client’s brother, was staying in Antwerp with his family at the time, so the opportunity to have the portraits painted there probably presented itself.