 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Self Portrait 1655 oil on canvas Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst and Jan Baptist Weenix Shepherd Boy with Sheep and Goats ca. 1647 oil on canvas private collection |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Diana the Huntress ca. 1640-50 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of a Young Man 1662 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of a Woman with a Book before 1670 oil on canvas Musée Magnin, Dijon |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of a Young Man 1654 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Venus chastising Cupid before 1670 oil on canvas private collection |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Venus with the Golden Apple 1664 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Young Woman with Drapery 1658 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Young Woman with a Sunflower 1670 oil on canvas private collection |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of a Burgomaster ca. 1665-70 oil on canvas Minneapolis Institute of Art |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of Louis De Geer 1656 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of a Woman 1644 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Portrait of Anna du Pire as Granida (pastoral play Granida by Pieter Hooft) 1660 oil on canvas National Gallery, Prague |
 |
| Bartholomeus van der Helst Self Portrait as Daifilo (pastoral play Granida by Pieter Hooft) 1660 oil on canvas National Gallery, Prague |
"[Pieter Hooft's Granida], written about 1605, was the first pastoral play in the Dutch language. Arcadian poetry, which had long been cultivated in Italy, France and England, thus became the fashion in Holland too. Hooft's Granida remained very popular for a long time; this is born out by the numerous editions of the play in the course of the seventeenth century. By the year 1679 these numbered no less than eight. It is therefore not surprising that literary circles in Holland appreciated pictorial representations of this work just as much as those of Ariosto's Orlando, Tasso's Aminta, and Guarini's Pastor Fido."
"Granida, daughter of the King of Persia, has lost her way whilst out hunting. She meets the shepherd Daifilo and the shepherdess Dorilea, from whom she asks the way, and the whereabouts of her attendants. She reveals her identity to the shepherd who offers her a drink of water. Daifilo, who has fallen in love with Granida at first sight, follows her to the royal court. There he becomes a page to Tisiphernes, a prince who asks Granida's hand in marriage. She has several suitors and it is decided that the one who defeats his rivals in a duel is to be rewarded by her hand. Tisiphernes orders Daifilo to fight in his place. The shepherd, having defeated the last of his adversaries, is sent to bring this message to the princess. On this occasion Granida and Daifilo decide to flee together, with the intention of living in the woods as shepherd and shepherdess. Immediately after their flight, however, they are discovered by the attendant of one of the defeated princes. Daifilo is taken prisoner and is to be killed. Fortunately Tisiphernes appears at the right moment, and moved by the love of the shepherd and the princess he intervenes in their favour. Daifilo is made a prince and marries Granida."
– S.J. Gudlaugsson, excerpted from Representation of Granida in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting, published in the Burlington Magazine (August, 1948)