Last time I bought a painting from Elly I made a comment to her about the frames, which I didn't like. I didn't know then that she makes all the frames for her paintings herself and decorates them with 23 carat gold leaf. Obviously I never meant to hurt her feelings (sorry Elly!).
However, I still think the frames on the paintings I got are not right. In the 17th century paintings had quite austere, dark frames made from ebony and such woods.
Yesterday I tried out various possibilities on my milling machine. I still have a lot to learn, but I had fun trying to make a frame for my painting. Now I did not have any ebony available to me (I hope to find some in the future), so I used a very fine oak. I think it already shows the painting so much better!
I do love the painting. I love that lace cap and the fantastic lace millstone collar!
As I searched online for information on these frames, I came across Gregor's, a Dutch company which makes fantastic frames for old master paintings. The video below is about the frames he made for the Hermitage in St. Peterburg, three of the frames were for Rembrandt's paintings.
Unfortunately the video is in Dutch, but I love the glimpse into a world we don't normally have access to.
Fun little fact Gregor mentions in the video: He says the frame he will be making for the 40 million euro Rembrandt, will cost about 1250 euros. The same type of frame would have cost about 2000 guilders back in the 17th century (that's about $ 1000!!). For that amount of money you could buy an entire canal house on one of the Amsterdam canals back then!! Wow!