Gilbert Souest: an account of the seventeenth-century portrait painter

Abstract

The life and work of the seventeenth-century London portrait painter Gilbert Soest, 1605?- 81, is described. His Christian name is not Gerard as previously thought. His stylistic origins are seen in the school of portraiture in the Hague of the 1640's in particular the portrait work of the studio of Gerrit van Honthorst 1590 - 1656. This thesis establishes for the first time a body of work for Soest. His portraits and related engravings are listed, described and distinguished from those which have been incorrectly attributed to him