Lot 1520 Dα

Inscribed later and with an erroneous date on the upper left: Amalia Freulin von Solms 1622
Countess Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels (* 31st August 1602 at Braunfels Castle in Braunfels; † 8th September 1675 in The Hague) from the Solms dynasty of counts came to the Heidelberg court in the summer of 1619 and was appointed lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Stuart, Electress of the Palatinate and later Winter Queen. After their flight from Prague, Countess Amalie moved with the royal family to The Hague in the spring of 1621. It was there, at a ball in honour of the Queen of Bohemia, that Amalie met her future husband, Prince Frederick Henry of Orange (1584-1647), youngest son and successor of the governor William I of Orange. In 1625 she became Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau by marriage to Prince Frederick Henry of Orange.
Michiel van Mierevelt and his workshop portrayed both the Palatine Electors and their court. A stylistically closely related, unsigned version of this portrait is housed in the Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en Velay. The RKD in The Hague dates it to 1626 or later and considers it to be a copy after a lost painting by Mierevelt (see Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, no. 37611). This prototype, painted shortly after Amalia's marriage in 1625, is also the model for the present representation from Mierevelt's workshop. We would like to thank Rudi Ekkart the information he has provided for the cataloguing of this lot.