Jan Cornelisz Verspronck
was a Dutch portrait painter noted for his portraits of children. He was
trained in the studio of his father,
Cornelis Engelsz.,
who painted portraits, kitchen still lifes and genre scenes. He joined the
guild of St Luke in 1632 and spent his entire life as a portrait painter
of his fellow townsmen. He was more than twenty years younger than
Frans Hals
and may have worked in his studio. He was certainly
powerfully influenced by Hals's style. His most imposing works are
the two group portraits of 1641 and 1642 of the Regentesses of the
St Elizabeth Hospital which form a counterpart to the portrait of
the Regents of the same institution painted by Hals in the same
years. All three paintings hang today in the Frans Halsmuseum in
Haarlem.
Verspronck produced about 100
known paintings. His Girl in blue appeared on September 15, 1945,
on the bank note for 25 Dutch guilders. The bank note had a circulation
of approximately 39 million, and was removed from circulation on February 1,
1953.