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View alphabetical lists of all artists who are either Scottish or whose works are associated with Scotland currently featured on the site.
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- Gerard Soest
- Lady Margaret Hay, Countess of Roxburghe, about 1657 – 1753
- about 1675
- PG 3400
- Scottish Art
Gerard Soest (Dutch or German, about 1605 - 1681)
Known as Zoust by his contemporaries, Gerard or Gilbert Soest was probably born in the Netherlands, although some accounts say that he was from Germany. It is thought that he trained as an artist in Holland, but by the 1650s Soest was living in London, working as a portrait painter. His style is very similar to that of other Dutch portraitists in the mid-seventeenth century. His sitters are well-characterised, conventionally posed with smoothly painted faces. Interestingly, the hands of his sitters often appear slightly swollen. Despite his success as a painter, Soest received some criticism from women who felt that their portraits were not flattering enough. It is said that because of this, between 1660 and 1667 Soest refused to paint any women at all.
