Portrait of a Man with a Hat

ca. 1635

Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

oil on panel
37.5 x 31 cm
GD-100© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Rahusen, Henriette. "Portrait of a Man with a Hat." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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In this bust-length portrait, an earnest young man, who wears a heavy

Comparative Figures

black cloak and has just taken off his right glove, turns toward the viewer.
This subtle indication of movement energizes the triangular form of thesitter’s body. Within a painted oval surround, the intense black of theman’s wide-brimmed hat and the folds of his white, pleated collar
dramatically frame his pale face and wispy, reddish-brown hair. Despite
his rather refined features, the man’s expression is slightly unsettling, likely
due to the fact that his eyes do not seem to focus.[1]Gerrit Dou tackled portraiture only in the first fifteen or so years of hiscareer.[2] A single, oft-repeated, eye-witness account of the artist’s working
methods has perhaps skewed our impression of the limitations of Dou’sabilities as a portraitist: according to Joachim von Sandrart, who visited
Dou’s studio in 1639, the artist’s meticulous and thus very time-consuming
manner of painting not only diminished the pool of potential patrons willingFig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait, c. 1630, oil on panel, 70 x
57 cm, Walker Art Gallery,Liverpool, inv. no.
WAG1011, Courtesy National
Museums Liverpool

to endure multiple lengthy sittings, but also caused sitters’ lively faces tomorph into expressions of tedium and annoyance.[3] Van Sandrart’scomments may help explain the general lack of commissioned portraits
from Dou’s later years, but rarely do Dou’s portraits convey “tedium andannoyance.” Indeed, the artist’s careful observations of the physiognomy
and expressions of his sitters are always engaging and compelling, as, forexample, with this young man’s slightly quizzical expression. Dou’sportraits, however, seldom reveal much about the sitter’s interests andoccupation, since he generally refrained from including personal attributes
such as those that do appear in his self-portraits.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, this portrait was variously
attributed to a number of artists, including Frans Hals (1582/83–1666) andThomas de Keyser (1596–1667).[4] In 1888, Wilhelm Bode correctly

Fig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III,
1632, oil on panel, 29.9 x 24.9cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery,London, inv. no. DPG99, By
Permission of the Trustees ofDulwich Picture Gallery

attributed the portrait to Dou and used the man’s costume to date thepainting circa 1634–35.[5] Other scholars, including Willem Martin andCornelis Hofstede de Groot in the early twentieth century and, more
recently, Werner Sumowski and Ronni Baer, have concurred with thisattribution and date.[6]This work appears to be the earliest surviving portrait by the Leiden
master, created just a few years after Dou completed his studies withRembrandt van Rijn (1606–69).[7] It is therefore not surprising that several
elements in this portrait echo Rembrandt’s early portraits. Even though the© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Page 4 of 9painted oval surround was a common framing feature at the time,
Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait of 1630–31 (fig 1) likely provided Dou with animmediate example of this pictorial device. Rembrandt’s Portrait of
Jacob de Gheyn III, 1632 (fig 2), also demonstrated to Dou how to placea figure against a neutral background while focusing light on the face andFig 3. Rembrandt van Rijn, SelfPortrait as a Burger, 1632, oil on
panel, 64.4 x 47.6 cm, The BurrellCollection, Glasgow, inv.nr.
35/600, © CSG CIC Glasgow
Museums and Libraries
Collections

creating halo effects around the sitter’s head.[8] The multilayered “fallingruff” collar is characteristic of collar styles in the early to mid-1630s, atransitional phase between the elaborate pleated and starched ruff collars
worn in earlier decades and the simple flat damask ones that soon after
would come into fashion.[9] Rembrandt wears the same type of substantial
lace collar in his Self-Portrait as a Burger, 1632 (fig 3).[10]-Henriette Rahusen© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Page 5 of 9Endnotes
1. It is possible that the unidentified sitter had a divergent or outward squint e( xotropicstrabismus) of his left eye.
2. Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt , ed. Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture
Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 34.
3. Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt , ed. Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture
Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 34–35 and note 94. Joachim vonSandrart, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von1675: Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, ed. A. R. Peltzer (Munchen,1925), 195–96.
4. Theophile Bürger first associated the portrait with Gerrit Dou when it was in the collection ofLothar Franz Von Schönborn in Pommersfelden. He attributed the painting to “Ecole de G.
Dou (?).” See Hôtel Drouot, Galerie de Pommersfelden: Catalogue de la collection detableaux anciens du château de Pommersfelden à M. le comte de Schönborn (Paris,1867), 17, no. 25 (Portrait de jeune homme). According to the notes, the portrait had been
listed as by Frans Hals in a catalogue (either Drouot or Pommersfelden) of 1857 as no. 108.
A handwritten notation next to the 1867 catalogue entry indicates the hammer price was 610
French francs. For this information, see Wilhelm von Bode and Gesellschaft fürVervielfältigende Kunst, Die Grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie zu Oldenburg (Vienna,1888), 35 and 40. Click here for an online version of the sales catalogue of 1867.
5. Wilhelm von Bode, Die Grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie zu Oldenburg (Vienna, 1888),
35 and 40. According to Bode, the portrait entered the Oldenburg Gallery as a work byThomas de Keyser. Bode rejected that attribution in favor of Dou, noting that it has “all thecharacteristic artistic components of a work by Gerard Dou.” The 1888 catalogue includes areproduction of L. Kuhn’s print after the portrait. Click here for the online text.
6. Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, trans. Clara Bell (London, 1902), 132, no. 147. Cornelis
Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith , 8 vols. (London,1907–27), 1:450–51, no. 339, as by Dou, translated from Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts ,10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28).
7. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New YorkUniversity, 1990), 3: no. 13. Fourteen-year-old Gerrit Dou entered the studio of Rembrandt
on 14 February 1628 and stayed with him until Rembrandt’s departure for Amsterdam in© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
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8. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
2, 1631–1634, ed. Joshua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), 219–22,
no. A56 (Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, inv. 99).
9. The disappearance of the millstone or ruff collars occurs around the year 1630. Members of
the older generation nevertheless continued to wear variations of the millstone collars. See,for example, Govaert Flinck’s The Governors of the Kloveniersdoelen of 1642
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), in which three of the five men portrayed wear ruff collars andthe two youngest sport the new flat collar.
10. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol.
2, 1631–1634, ed. Joshua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1986), no. A 58.

ProvenanceCount of Schönborn, Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden, Germany, by 1719, as byFrans Hals; (his sale, Pommersfelden Collection, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17–18 May 1867, no.
25 [to Oldenburg], as by school of Dou).
Oldenburg Gallery, Oldenburg, Germany [as by Thomas de Keyser from 1867 until 1888,
when attributed to Dou].
[Zacharias Max Hackenbroch (1884–1937), Frankfurt am Main, by 1924].
Henry Karl Janssen (1866–1948), Wyomissing, Pennsylvania; by descent to Helen Janssen
Wetzel, Spring Township, Pennsylvania (her sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 9 October 1980,no. 7).
Private collection, New York; (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 7 June 1984, no. 75; sale,Sotheby’s, London, 2 July 1986, no. 157 [Johnny van Haeften Ltd., London, by 1992]).
Private collection, Germany [Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9March–31 August 2014 [lent by the present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August 2015–August© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
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References
Katalog der Gräflich von Schönborn’schen Bilder-Gallerie zu Pommersfelden . Würzburg,
1857, 17, no. 108, as by Frans Hals.
Mündler, Otto. Catalogue de Tableaux [de la galerie des Cte de Schönborn àPommersfelden]. [Paris], 1861, 5, no. 108, as by “Frank” Hals.
Catalogue de la collection de Tablaeux Anciens des écoles Hollandaise, Flamande etAllemande provenant du Chateau de Pommersfelden à M. le Comte de Schönborn . Paris,
1867, 17, no. 25, as by school of Dou.
Verzeichniss der Gemälde in der Grossherzoglichen Sammlung zu Oldenburg Mit einem
Anhange der auf den Gemälden befindlichen Monogramme, Bezeichnungen u. Inschriften .
Oldenburg, 1871, 81, no. 151, as by Thomas de Keyser.
Bode, Wilhelm von. Der Grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie zu Oldenburg . Vienna, 1888,
35, n.p. [“Bildniss Eines Jungen Mannes”].
Alten,Friedrichvon. Verzeichniss

derGemälde,GypseundBronzen

inderGrossherzoglichen Sammlung zu Oldenburg. Exh. cat. Oldenburg, 1890, 83–84, no. 175.
Martin, Wilhelm. Het Leven en de Werken Van Gerrit Dou Beschouwd in Verband met het
Schildersleven van Zijn Tijd. Leiden, 1901, 205, no. 151.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou. Translated by Clara Bell. London, 1902, 132, no. 147.
Kurzes Verzeichnis der Gemälde, Gips-Abgüsse und Bronze-Nachbildungen derGrossherzoglichen Sammlung im Augusteum zu Oldenburg. Oldenburg, 1902, 25, no. 175.
Bredius, Abraham, and Schmidt-Degener, Frederik. Die Grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie
im Augusteum zu Oldenburg. Oldenburg, 1906, 14.
Von Würzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon; Auf Grund ArchivalischerForschungen Bearbeitet. 3 vols. Vienna and Leipzig, 1906, 1:418.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 450–51, no. 339. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts.
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28, 1:441, no. 339.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, sa Vie et son Oeuvre: Étude sur la peinture hollandaise etles marchands au dix-septième siècle. Paris, 1911, 174, no. 72.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst 24. Stuttgart and© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Page 8 of 9Berlin, 1913, 33.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau,
1983–95, 6:3838, no. 2253.
Baer, Ronni. The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675) . 3 vols. Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 1990, cat. nos. 13.1–13.3.
Baer, Ronni. “Gerrit Dou: Portrait of a Young Man in a Painted Oval.” InDutch and Flemish
Old Master Paintings. Sales cat. Johnny Van Haeften Ltd. London, 1992, no. 10.
Surh, Dominique, Van Tuinen, Ilona and Twilley, John. “Insights from Technical Analysis ona Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” Journal of Historians ofNetherlandish Art 6, no.1 (Winter 2014): 1, 3, 30, figs. 3a and 3b.

VersionsEngraved
1. L. Kühn, after Dou, Bildniss Eines Jungen Mannes, engraving. In Wilhelm von Bode, Dergrossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie zu Oldenburg (Vienna, 1888).

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The painting is executed on a rectangular panel made from a single plank of vertically grained
oak. The plank was obtained from a tree of eastern Baltic origin, with a fell date of 1617 and aprojected use date of 1617–49.[1] The back of the panel is beveled on the top and left edges, asviewed from the reverse. A 0.8-cm-wide, unpainted wooden shim with vertical grain has been
added to the right edge with six metal brads. The panel exhibits both a convex and a concave
warp in the horizontal direction, forming an S-shape along the top and bottom edges. It also hasa vertical convex warp on the left side. The right side remains in plane. There are no wax seals or
panel maker’s marks, but there is a round, illegible import stamp on the reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied with vertical brushstrokes. It extends
to, but not over, the edges of the panel. The artist applied a thin, transparent, brown imprimatura
over the ground. The portrait was executed in a light-colored, feigned oval, but the paint covers a© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of a Man with a Hat
Page 9 of 9rectangular area with black spandrels around the oval. The paint does not extend to the paneledges. A 0.5-cm border of imprimatura remains on the top, left, and bottom edges. The border is
not present on the right edge, but traces of the imprimatura along this edge suggest that it once
had a similar border, which has been trimmed and replaced by the wooden shim.
The portrait is thinly painted with relatively little planning, as evidenced by the numerous artist’schanges revealed by infrared reflectography and X-radiography. The sitter’s white ruff waswidened; his black cloak originally had a black collar that extended beyond the sleeves; hisproper right eyebrow was more angular; his nose was straighter; and the proper left profile of his
face is now more defined in the area where the chin meets the cheek. In addition, no reserve wasleft for the sitter’s gloves. In contrast to these changes, the X-radiographs show a sharp, thin,white line around the face and hat of the sitter, which probably corresponds to the planningstage. Six or seven fingerprints are visible in the lower left corner. Unfortunately, the paint in thisarea is not original, so the fingerprints are unlikely to belong to the artist.[2]The painting is in good condition. There are numerous small, subtle areas of inpainting that coverabrasion along the wood grain.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Ian Tyers dendochronological report, November 2010.
2. John Twilley scientific examination report, 31 January 2013.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection