Contemporary collectors of paintings by seventeenth-century Dutch artists would generally have been offered two fundamentally different types of frame - a linear design of polished or veneered wood, or a carved and gilded French frame. Both styles are depicted in interior scenes by Vermeer, Maes, Metsu, Steen, de Hooch and others.

The choice depended then (as it still does) on the owner's nationality and pocket, as well as his personal taste, the proposed location of the painting, the harmony between painting and frame, and the relationship of the frame to others nearby.

Pictures are more likely to be reframed when their owners change than at any other time. A painting may remain undisturbed for decades or even centuries until it reaches the art market, when cleaning and conservation are usually undertaken and the presentation is reassessed. The perpetually strong demand for Netherlandish art and its mobility, witnessed by lengthy provenances, have resulted in regular reframing. A good quality seventeenth- or eighteenth-century French or English frame retained on a Dutch painting may be regarded as a bonus. For many works, and especially those of modest value, dealers have generally tended to use low-cost reproductions of Dutch frames, because the greater expense of period frames in either style may be risky when the buyer’s preference cannot be predicted.

The purchaser of the painting, whether through a dealer or at auction, has the opportunity to make a definitive decision as to the frame, possibly in collaboration with the dealer, as illustrated here in the case of a fine Hobbema landscape.

Initially the three proposals were viewed as montages, and then again in situ. It was instructive to compare their respective aesthetic merits.

A

B

In the ebony frame with ripple mouldings (A), the colour scheme of the picture was intensified by the black surround; and the wave mouldings, reflecting the scale of detail in the picture, created a subtle and even flicker of light around the subject. The warm brown tones of the pearwood frame (B) modified this effect, being the complementary colour to the predominating greens of the landscape.

C

The sumptuously carved Louis XIV period French frame (C) conveyed a sense of instant opulence. The finely-sculpted foliage and flowers on a cross-hatched ground are in tune with the scale and content of the picture and indicate the relative luxury of the intended setting. This was the frame selected by the new owner of the painting, reaffirming the fact that the majority of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings purchased by English and French collectors were framed in the traditional giltwood frames of the collectors' native countries, to match the existing framing styles of their collections - many of which may still be seen in museum and private collections today.