Scholar in His Studyca. 1668

Godfrey Kneller(Lübeck 1646 – 1723 London)

oil on canvas
105 x 86 cm
GK-100© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. "Scholar in His Study." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Scholar in His Study
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Sitting beside an open window with a warm light filling his darkened study,

Comparative Figures

an elderly scholar wearing a dark blue velvet beret and an amber furtrimmed tabbaard, the traditional dress of a scholar, quietly concentrates
on sharpening his quill.[1] His deep-set eyes are cast downward as hisfingers nimbly guide the knife’s blade across the tip of the pen. The open
book lying before him suggests that that he will soon resume writing,possibly about worldly matters since a large terrestrial globe stands on thetable to his left. Behind him, a thick brown curtain has been swept over thewindowpane, its heavy folds rendered in broad, sweeping brushstrokes.
The pictorial character of Scholar in His Study reflects the influence ofFerdinand Bol (1616–80), with whom the German-born Godfrey Kneller
apprenticed in Amsterdam in the mid-1660s.[2] Bol represented a scholar
in his study several times in the 1640s and 1650s, as in the Leiden

Fig 1. Ferdinand Bol, Old Manwith a Globe, ca. 1650, oil oncanvas, 122 x 98 cm, The State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg

Collection’s Man with a Book, 1644 (FB-100), and Old Man with a Globe ,ca. 1650, in the Hermitage (fig 1).[3] Bol’s intimate compositions, delicate
rendering of the details of the scholars’ dress and attributes, and his subtle
use of chiaroscuro provided Kneller with a compositional and stylistic
models. Kneller likewise took great care in rendering the various texturesof fabric and the way that light falls over its surfaces, evident, for example,
in the highlights that reveal the softness of the velvet beret. Kneller’s tightly
cropped composition and the frontal pose of the scholar contribute to thepainting’s immediacy, as does his assured, vibrant brushwork.
The theme of a scholar sharpening his quill was introduced to Dutch art inLeiden by Gerrit Dou (1613–75) in the late 1620s.[4] Dou’s pupil Frans vanMieris (1635–81) depicted the subject in the early 1650s (fig 2), a paintingthat Kneller may have known from his student years in Leiden.[5] Much aswith Kneller’s scholar, Van Mieris’s bearded, elderly scholar sharpens hisFig 2. Frans van Mieris, Old Man
Sharpening His Pen, ca.
1650–55, oil on panel, 34.5 x 24.5cm, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden, inv. 1748

quill with great concentration and patience. He is situated within a stoneniche and is seated before a table with a large, open book and a globe. A
curtain has been pulled aside to reveal the scene, evoking a sense of
intimacy that Kneller has similarly conveyed. The theme of the quill cutter
served as an emblem of diligent practice, forming, together with education
andnaturaltalent,artist’s—training.

[6]

theidealcomponents

ofascholar’s—orThe diligence with which the scholar performs his task

makes him a model of scholarly virtue.[7]Early in his career Kneller portrayed the theme of a scholar in his study on

Fig 3. Godfrey Kneller, Old Man© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Scholar in His Study
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a number of occasions.[8] In the Bader collection’s A Scholar in an Interior ,ca. 1668, he similarly depicted the elderly scholar seated in the foregroundof his image.[9] Kneller also represented the scholar in his study inpaintings in Lübeck and Paris (fig 3).[10] In the Louvre painting the scholar

Meditating: Lesson in Vanity, ca.
1668, oil on canvas, 145 x 137
cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv.
1061, photo: Jean-Gilles Berizzi,© RMN-Grand Palais / Art
Resource, NY

looks thoughtfully into the distance, his gaze passing by a table filled withbooks, a globe, a musical instrument, armor, a skull and a candle. Thiswork differs from Scholar in His Study in the complexity of its composition
and in its vanitas connotations. The relative simplicity of the composition ofthe Leiden Collection painting suggests that this charmingly atmosphericwork was among the first of Kneller’s portrayals of scholars that he madein the late 1660s.

-Lara Yeager-Crasselt© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Scholar in His StudyPage 5 of 8Endnotes
1. For a discussion of the tabbaard in the scholarly tradition, see the essays for FB-100 andFB-107, as well as Marieke de Winkel, “‘Eene der deftigsten dragten’: The Iconography ofthe Tabbaard and the Sense of Tradition in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Portraiture,”Beeld
en Zelfbeeld in de Nederlandse Kunst 1550–1750 , Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek
46 (1995): 146–66.
2. See the biography of Kneller in this catalogue. Albert Blankert has argued that Bol must haveurged Kneller to paint images of a scholar in his study as part of his training. By the 1660s
these images were old-fashioned, but they must have provided a suitable model for Kneller,
who turned to the depiction of the scholar in his study on a number of occasions, asdiscussed below. Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil(Doornspijk, 1982), 22.
3. See Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982),
nos. 67, 69, and 70; and the essay forFB-100. For the Hermitage painting (Old Man with aGlobe, ca. 1650, oil on canvas, 122 x 98 cm, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), see
the essay for FB-105, fig. 3. Whereas Bol emphasized the scholars’ intellectual
contemplation, Kneller chose to portray the figure in an active pose in this work.
4. Scholar Sharpening His Quill, ca. 1628–30, oil on panel, 25.5 x 20.5 cm; see the entry for
GD-104.
5. For Van Mieris’s work, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 1:39, 44, 122; 2:8–9, no. 2; Sabine Schultze et al., Leselust:
Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt am Main, Schirn
Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt am Main, 1993–94), 246–48, no. 56; Quentin Buvelot, ed.,Frans vanMieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery ofArt) (Zwolle, 2005), 72–75, nos. 1–2 (along with the drawing of the same subject). Otherexamples include Adriaen van Ostade, Quill Cutter, oil on panel, 33.2 x 26.7 cm,
Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest; Adriaen van Ostade, The Quill Cutter, ca. 1645, oil onpanel, 22.5 x 18.5 cm., Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe; Jan Lievens, Quill Cutter, ca. 1627,
formerly Heinz Kisters Collection, Kreuzlingen; Salomon Koninck, A Scholar Sharpening HisQuill, oil on canvas, 57.2 x 46 cm, Christie’s, Amsterdam, May 6, 2008. See, respectively,Sabine Schultze et al., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh.
cat. Frankfurt am Main, Schirn Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt am Main, 1993–94), 248, fig. 56.2; andWerner Sumowksi, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden , 6 vols. (Landau,1983), 3:1794, no. 1235.
For the theme of the scholar in his study, see Volker Manuth et al.,Wisdom, Knowledge, andMagic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Exh. cat. Kingston,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Scholar in His Study
Page 6 of 8Canada, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University) (Kingston, 1997), particularly
nos. 16 and 17.
6. See Jan Emmens, “Natuur, onderwijzing en oeffening bij een drieluik van Gerrit Dou,” inAlbum Discipulorum aangeboden aan Prof. de Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn zestigste
verjaardag 27 februari 1963 (Utrecht, 1963), 125–36. Emmens based his ideas on
Aristotle’s writings about education. Also see Otto Naumann,Frans van Mieris (1635–1681)
the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:122.
7. An alternative view, which suggests that the physical activity of sharpening the pen distracts
the scholar from his intellectual pursuits, does not resonate with this work. For thisinterpretation, see Bettina Werche in Sabine Schultze et al., Leselust: NiederländischeMalerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt am Main, Schirn Kunsthalle)(Frankfurt am Main, 1993–94), 246–48.
8. In addition to the examples discussed in this essay, there are a number of other paintings ofscholars attributed to Kneller: A Scholar, Seated Three-Quarter Length at a Desk , late1660s, oil on canvas, 106 x 89 cm, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 6 May 1998, no. 135;A Scholarin His Study with Books and a Globe , oil on canvas, 124 x 98 cm, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July
1999, no. 165; Mathematician or Astronomer Studying, oil on canvas, 110.5 x 122.5 cm,Dorotheum, Vienna, 24 March 1999, no. 220; Portrait of a Scholar, oil on canvas, 101 x 90.2cm, Sotheby’s, New York, 25 May 2000, no. 207. See Werner Sumowksi, Gemälde derRembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden, 6 vols. (Landau, 1983), 3: nos. 972, 2333a, and 974.
9. A Scholar in an Interior , ca. 1668, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 93.3 cm, Collection of Drs. Alfredand Isabel Bader, Milwaukee. The scarf draped around the figure’s neck resembles ageneral type of Jewish prayer shawl. Although not exactly identifiable, it has been suggested
that the figure is a Jewish scholar. See Volker Manuth et al., Wisdom, Knowledge, andMagic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Exh. cat. Kingston,Canada, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University) (Kingston, 1997), no. 9; Davidde Witt, The Bader Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings (Kingston, 2008), no. 99. The
unusual frontal pose and tightly organized composition of Kneller’s work are also evident in
Paulus de Lesire’s The Quill Cutter (ca. 1628–29, oil on panel, 78.8 x 60 cm, Collection ofDrs. Alfred and Isabel Bader, Milwaukee). Lesire’s figure is characterized by a sense ofdisorder, and other than a messy pile of books and papers on the table the scene is devoidof scholarly attributes. See Bettina Werche in Sabine Schultze et al., Leselust:
Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt am Main, SchirnKunsthalle) (Frankfurt am Main, 1993–94), 248 n. 10; Manuth et al.,Wisdom, Knowledge,
and Magic, no. 17; and De Witt, The Bader Collection, no. 107.
10. Scholar in His Study, 1668, oil on canvas, 133 x 173 cm, St. Annen Museum, Lübeck;
Scholar in His Study, 1668, oil on canvas, 132 x 174 cm, St. Annen Museum, Lübeck.
Kneller’s Old Man Meditating in the Louvre was attributed to Ferdinand Bol until Blankert© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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identified it as being by Kneller in 1982. See Albert Blankert,Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680):
Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), 22.

Provenance(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1985, no. 64, as by Salomon Koninck).
[Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, 1991].
Anonymous private foundation.
[Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc., New York, 2007].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Gouda, Stedelijke Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1999–2005 [lent by ananonymous private foundation].

References
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden . 6 vols. Landau, 1983,
3:1487, no. 974a, 1497.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of fine, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed, has beenlined. The upper edge has a sloped cut, and cusping is visible along the upper and lower edges.
Various paper labels have been adhered to the stretcher, but no wax collection seals, stencils or
import stamps are located along the lining or stretcher reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been smoothly andopaquely applied with no use of impasto but with visible brushwork through the figure’s fingers
and face and with glazes of brown paint to create the fur trim. Short beard hairs along the figure’s
chin have been scratched into the wet paint with the pointed end of a brush.
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No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images. The images reveal minor compositionalchanges to the edge of the rolled paper beneath the bookstand, along the upper edge of theglobe and its vertical spine, and a change in shape to the lower left side of the figure’s cap.
The painting is unsigned and undated but has two words inscribed in block letters in light anddark paint along the globe.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based in part on a 2013 examination report by Simon Howell and Rachel CaseyThomas of R. M. S. Shephard Associates, Wimbledon, UK.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection