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Scholar Sharpening His Quill
Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1632-35
oil on oval panel
26.3 x 21.2 cm
signed under quill, center right: “GD” (inmonogram)
GD-104

How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Scholar Sharpening His Quill” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived
December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

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An elderly scholar, clad in a purplish-brown skullcap and fur-trimmed tabard, isComparative Figures

seated at his study before an open book. With clenched chin and furrowed brow, hecautiously attempts to slice the tip of a quill pen, using the soft pad of his thumb tobalance the tip against the pressure of his blade. Concentrating on the precision of his
task, he peers intently at the quill through gold-trimmed spectacles perched at the endof his nose.
The theme of the contemplative scholar at work in his study was a favorite of Dutch
artists. Gerrit Dou, however, has here shown a different type of scholarly concern, theneed to prepare his writing instrument to allow for the proper transmission of histhoughts to the thick tome before him. In the Dutch emblematic world, this activity
symbolized the notion of Practice, one of three Aristotelian precepts, along with
Nature and Education, essential for a successful and virtuous upbringing.[1] The

Fig 1. Crispijn van de Passe, “Nilpenna sed usus,” engraving from
Gabriel Rollenhagen, Emblemata ofte
Volsinnighe uytbeelses versamelt ende
vermeerdert met syne eygene sinrijcke
vindingen (Arnhem and Utrecht, 1617)

notion of sharpening one’s intellect through practice was exemplified by the Latin
idiom nil penna sed usus (“not the pen but its use”), and was illustrated in emblematic
literature by the ostrich, a flightless bird whose feather quills were used for writing (fig 1).[2] A slightly earlier example of the same theme that Dou would have known
because it was painted in Leiden was The Pen Cutter by Jan Lievens (1607–74), ca.
1627 (see JL-101, fig. 1), which shows an old man pausing from his work to examine
the sharpness of his quill.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and his Leiden circle often depicted older men andscholars in the late 1620s and early 1630s. The sitter in this painting, one of the mostfrequently depicted models in Leiden at the time, came to be known much later in theart historical literature as “Rembrandt’s father,” due to his frequent appearance in that
artist’s work during his Leiden period (see also GD-109).[3] Dou features this model inFig 2. Gerrit Dou, Scholar Sharpening
His Quill, ca. 1632, oil on panel,octagonal, 21 x 18 cm, whereabouts
unknowna number of paintings from the late 1620s and early 1630s.[4] Martin dated the present
work to the period of Dou’s apprenticeship with Rembrandt between 1628 and 1631,
but he probably executed it slightly later, around ca. 1632–35, about the same time as
the artist’s Man in a Gorget and Feather Beret in Kassel, which depicts the samemodel.[5]A component of the art theoretical training Dou gained from Rembrandt during his
apprenticeship would have been the importance of practice, which may explain Dou’s
fascination with this subject.[6] In fact, the Leiden Collection painting is probably asecond version of a composition that was formerly in the collection of James Simon
in Berlin (fig 2).[7] That now-lost version differs from the present work in both its
octagonal format and its more restricted iconography. It does not include, forexample, the books, hourglass and compass on the table, or the column and hanging
lamp in the background. One argument in favor of the chronological precedence ofFig 3. Willem Joseph Laquy after
Gerrit Dou, The Night School, ca.
1770, oil on canvas, 83 x 70 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-2320-B© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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the painting formerly in Berlin is a pentimento in the ink well of the Leiden
Collection work. This pentimento reveals that Dou initially painted the ink well in thesame position as that in the octagonal version before he shifted it to the right.
The more refined elements of the scholar’s wardrobe and materials in the Leiden
Collection painting also differ from those in the variant formerly in Berlin. The
scholar in the present painting is shown wearing a gold loop earring, a silk scarf, and ashirt brocaded with delicate golden threads. His sharpening tool is appointed withcostly ornamentation, details that appear at odds with his humble surroundings.
Despite the scholar’s enhanced appearance, he remains reliant on seeing through his
spectacles, even though he does not need to light the oil lamp to provide added
illumination.[8] These inherent contradictions between materiality and scholarly
engagement are underscored by the unusual position of the hourglass, shown tilted on
its side and used as a prop for the book, which seems to hint at the scholar’s disregard

Fig 4. Gerrit Dou, An Old
Schoolmaster Cutting His Pen, 1671, oil
on panel, 32.2 x 24.9 cm,
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, inv. no.
1709

for the transience of life and worldly possessions.
Within the Protestant culture of seventeenth-century Leiden—where values ofindustriousness, discipline, and practice were highly esteemed—this depiction of anaging scholar devotedly tending to his task would have been seen as a poignant
reminder of life’s potentials and limits. Dou must have drawn inspiration from theacademic surroundings of his native Leiden, the site of one of Europe’s oldest
universities. In this context, education and learning were paramount, and elder
scholars embodied values and dilemmas that made them both human and fallible.
Executed at the beginning of Dou’s career as an artist, the present work is a poignant
reminder of the repetition and practice that went into his artistic training.
Dou treated the subject of the pen cutter on several occasions throughout his career.
In a more ambitious narrative apparently illustrating Aristotle’s tripartite maxim, Doufeatured a pen cutter in one of the wings of the lost Braamcamp triptych, from about
1660, known only through an eighteenth-century copy by Willem Joseph Laquy (fig 3).[9] The idea of the pen cutter as an embodiment of Practice was repeated in a
number of Dou’s night-school scenes, especially An Evening School from about 1655
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and in a late work from 1671 in the
Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, An Old Schoolmaster Cutting His Pen, in which a group of
school children learning to write are visible in the background (fig 4).[10]- Dominique Surh, 2017

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Endnotes
1. Plutarch’s Golden Book, also known as De liberis educandis (On the Education of Bringing up Children),
was translated into Dutch three times in the seventeenth century and repeated the tripartite Aristotelian
notion of Natura, Disciplina, and Exercitatio. See Jan Baptist Bedaux, ed., Pride and Joy: Children’sPortraits in the Netherlands 1500–1700 (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum; Antwerp, Koninklijk
Museum voor Schone Kunsten) (Ghent and Amsterdam, 2000), 19–22. Jan A. Emmens was the first to
explore Dou’s incorporation of these ideas in his work and suggested that Scholar Sharpening His Quill
was an illustration of Practice (Exercitatio). See Jan A. Emmens, “Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij
een drieluik van Gerrit Dou,” in Kunsthistorische Opstellen, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1981), 2: 5–22 (firstpublished in Album Discipulorum Prof. G. van Gelder [Utrecht, 1963], 125–63, and in abbreviated form
in English as “A Seventeenth-Century Theory of Art: Nature and Practice,” in Delta 12 [1969]: 30–39);
Peter Hecht, “Gerrit Dou’s Braamcamp Triptych Reconsidered: A Sceptical View of Its ‘Allegorical’Meaning,” in Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive (Cambridge, 1995), 100–2.
2. Gabriel Rollenhagen, Emblemata ofte Volsinnighe uytbeelses versamelt ende vermeerdert met syne eygene
sinrijcke vindingen (Arnhem and Utrecht, 1617) (electronic ed., Wolfenbüttel: Herzog August
Bibliothek, 2004). An Italian motto further likens the quill to intellect: Senza taglio non vaglio (“I amworthless unless sharpened”), see note 1 above. The theme was a favorite among Dutch artists, including
Jan Lievens, Salomon Koninck, Gabriel Metsu, Jan Steen, and Frans van Mieris, among others.
3. Arthur M. Hind, “The Portraits of Rembrandt’s Father,” Burlington Magazine 8, no. 36 (1906): 426–27;
see also Christiaan Vogelaar and Gerbrandt Korevaar, eds., Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality (Exh.
cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2005), 143ff.
4. On the discussion of the model known as “Rembrandt’s Father” seen in the Man with a Globe in the
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and in Man in a Gorget and Feather Beret in Staatliche Gemäldegalerie,
Kassel, see Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New York
University, 1990), nos. 2 and 11.
5. Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, sa vie et son oeuvre: Etude sur la peinture hollandaise et les marchaunds au
dix septième siècle (Paris, 1911), 168, no. 31; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde in 247
Abbildungen, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 24 (Stuttgart, 1913), 23.
6. Emmens regarded Dou’s Scholar Sharpening His Quill as a valuable document demonstrating theexample of the Aristotelian concept passed on to him by his teacher Rembrandt. See Jan A. Emmens,“Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij een drieluik van Gerrit Dou,” in Kunsthistorische Opstellen, 2 vols.
(Amsterdam, 1981) 2:21.
7. The version, which was subsequently with art dealers A. S. Drey, Munich, in 1925, and later with D.
Katz, Dieren, may be equivalent with one or both of the other two versions known only through salerecords (see Versions). It is likely that the drawing by Oyens and the print by Waanders were made after© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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this variant.
8. For a useful summary of the depiction of spectacles in art, see Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance Vision fromSpectacles to Telescopes, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 259 (Philadelphia, 2007).
9. Described by Houbraken, Dou’s original work was lost in the shipwreck of the Vrouw Maria in 1771
while in transit to Catherine of Russia and is known only through the copy by Willem Joseph Laquy. See
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Dou’s Reputation,” in Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter inthe Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (Zwolle, 2000), 17 and 120, no. 28.
10. Annegret Laabs and Christoph Schölzel, The Leiden Fijnschilders from Dresden, ed. Christian Vogelaar(Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen) (Zwolle, 2000), 42–43; see also Walter Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2 vols. (New York, 2007), 1: 156.

ProvenanceBicker van Zwieten (his sale, Bicker van Zwieten, The Hague, 12 April 1741, no. 68 [to Hoed for 110
florins]).
André de Stolberg, Count of Brabeck, Söder (his sale, Rumpler, Hannover, 31 October 1859, no. 78 [for500 florins]).
King George V of Hannover (1819–78), 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, by 1864; confiscatedwhen annexed by Prussia in 1866; held as inalienable property by the House of Braunschweig-Luneburg(in fidei commissum), 1892–1924; returned to the House of Braunschweig-Luneburg in 1924; by descentto the Princely House of Hannover, Germany and Switzerland, until 2001.
Private collection, Los Angeles and Denver; (private sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 2007).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Hannover, Welfen-Museum, on loan until 1864–66, no. 132 [lent by King George V].
Hannover, Museum for Arts and Sciences, on loan in the Cumberland-Galerie, 1886–92, no. 118 [lentby the government holding the endowment belonging to King George V].
Hannover, Provinzial Museum, on loan in the Fideicommiss-Galerie, 1892–1924 [lent as inalienableproperty on trust (in fidei commissum) of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneberg].
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Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in the Age ofVermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12 December 2011; Tokyo,
Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012, no. 12 [lent by the present owner].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou. The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9 March–31
August 2014 [lent by present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the present
owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].

References
Hoet, Gerard. Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langen reeks vanjaaren zoo. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 2:16, no. 66.
Das Kӧnigliche Welfen-museum. Das Kӧnigliche Welfen-museum zu Hannover im Jahre 1863.
Hannover, 1864, 85, no. 132.
Das Kӧnigliche Welfen-museum. Kӧnigliche Welfen-museum der zum Vermӧgen des Kӧnigs George V
Gehӧrenden Gemӓlde welche sich in dem House Nr. 3 der Landschaftstrasse zu Hannover
befinden. Hannover, 1876, 85, no. 465.
Katalog der zum Ressort der Königlichen Verwaltungs-Kommission gehörigen Sammlung von Gemälden,
Skulpturen und Alterthümern im Provinzial-Museumgebäude and der Prinzenstrasse Nr. 4 zu Hannover.
Hannover, 1891, 100, no. 118.
Martin, Wilhelm. “Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schilderslevenvan zijn tijd.” PhD diss. Universiteit Leiden, 1901. Leiden, 1901. 192, no. 74.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou. Translated from Dutch by Clara Bell. London, 1902, 129, no. 130.
Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg gehörigen
Sammlung von Gemӓlden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum Rudolf v. Bennigsenstrasse 1 zu
Hannover. Hannover, 1902, 100, no. 118.
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Eisenmann, Oscar. Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg
gehörigen Sammlung von Gemӓlden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum Rudolf v. Bennigsenstrasse 1 zu
Hannover. Hannover, 1905, 47, no. 91.
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. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke,
1: 361, no. 56. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols.
Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, sa vie et son oeuvre. Etude sur la peinture hollandaise et les marchaunds
au dix septième siècle. Paris, 1911, 168, no. 31.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildungen. Klassiker der Kunst in
Gesamtausgaben 24. Stuttgart & Berlin, 1913, 23.
Emmens, Jan A. “A Seventeenth-Century Theory of Art: Nature and Practice,” in Delta 12 (1969):
30–40. [later published in Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Realism Reconsidered. Edited byWayne Franits, 15–20. Cambridge, 1997.].
Emmens, Jan A. “Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij een drieluik van Gerrit Dou.” In Kunsthistorische
Opstellen. Amsterdam, 1981, 2: 5–22 (first published in Album Discipulorum Prof. G. van Gelder.
Utrecht, 1963, 125–63).
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)”. 3 vols. PhD diss. New York University, 1990,
Appendix A, as ‘untraced works.’
Hecht, Peter. “Gerrit Dou’s Braamkamp Triptych Reconsidered: A Skeptical View of Its ‘Allegorical’Meaning.” In Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive. Edited by Cynthia P. Schneider, William W.
Robinson, and Alice I. Davies, 100–2; 321–23, fig. 4. Cambridge, 1995.
Laabs, Annegret, and Christoph Schölzel. The Leiden fijnschilders from Dresden. Edited by Christiaan
Vogelaar, 78, n. 152. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 2000.
Buvelot, Quentin. “Old Man Sharpening His Pen.” In Frans van Mieris 1635-1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot, 73, under nos. 1-2. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, D.C., National Gallery ofArt. New Haven, 2005.
Surh, Dominique. “A Scholar Sharpening His Quill.” In Communication: Visualizing the Human
Connection in the Age of Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 64–6, no. 12. Exh. cat. Kyoto,
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art.
Tokyo, 2011.
Surh, Dominique, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley. “Insights from Technical Analysis on a Group of
Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” JHNA 6:1 (Winter 2014): 1, 3, 5, 7, 10-11, figs. 1a-b,
15, 26, 27a-b, 28a-c, 48. DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3
Hecht, Peter. “Beschränkung wird Marke: Spezialisierung in der Malerei des Godefridus Schalcken.”Wallraf-Richartz-Jarbuch 77 (2016): 278, no. 9.
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Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 10;14, no. 27. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Child’s Lesson.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 74–75; 178, no. 27. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing,
National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017): back cover.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 100–1.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 24; 32. Translated by
Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Scholar Sharpening His Quill.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 80–81; 233, no. 7. Translated by
Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 29. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
[Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 120, 122, no. 49. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Coutré, Jacquelyn N., Ed. Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges. Exh. cat. Kingston, Agnes
Etherington; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta; Hamilton, Art Gallery of Hamilton. Kingston, 2019,
188, no. 95.

Versions
Engraved
1. F. B. Waanders after Gerrit Dou, A Scholar Sharpening His Quill, (after the octagonal version formerly
in Berlin).

Versions and Copies© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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1. Gerrit Dou, Scholar Sharpening His Quill, oil on panel, octagonal, 21 x 18 cm, whereabouts unknown(formerly in the collection of James Simon, Berlin; subsequently with art dealer A. S. Drey, Munich,
1925; art dealer D. Katz, Dieren).

2. Gerrit Dou, Pen Sharpener, oil on panel, 24 x 19 cm, whereabouts unknown (formerly in sale, Leiden,
26 August 1788).

3. Gerrit Dou, Pen Sharpener, oil on panel, 25.5 x 20.5 cm, whereabouts unknown (formerly in sale,
Cauwerven, Leiden, 31 July 1765; sale, A. Motte, [city?], 20 August 1794 for 101 florins, to Ijver; sale
Robiano, Brussels, 1 May 1837; sale, D. v. d. Schrieck, Leuven, 10 April 1861).

Technical Summary
The oval painting was executed on a vertically grained oak panel. The panel has been thinned, and no original
bevel remains. A horizontally grained, crescent-shaped addition extends three quarters of the way around theperimeter, along all but the upper right quadrant when viewed from the front.
The panel was prepared with a light-colored ground. It was thinly applied and does not mask the texture of
the woodgrain. It is radio-opaque, accentuating the woodgrain in the X-radiographs, which is a sign that itprobably contains a lead-based pigment. The X-radiographs show a light area around the figure, indicatingthat Dou blocked in the area of the figure first.
Dou applied the paint thinly and smoothly, using low impasto only in the objects on the table, the gold handleof the scholar’s knife, and the shadow of the book. The writing in the book was executed with a very dilute
paint with fine pigment particles. This contrasts with the book text in Scholar Interrupted at His Writing(GD-102), in which coarse pigment particles in a thicker paint were used.[1] The purple cloak of the scholar
was created with red lake and indigo. Red lake is a fugitive pigment, but the pigment particles do not show
signs of fading; however a top glaze layer may have been lost.[2] Infrared reflectography shows three artist’schanges.[3] The inkpot was moved to the right, originally located where the compass now lies; the knuckles ofthe scholar’s proper left hand were shifted to the left; and the thumb of the scholar’s proper right hand was
shortened and moved toward the index finger.
The painting is in fairly good condition. The panel bears a slight convex warp when viewed from the front
and there is a vertical split in the panel stemming from the center of the top edge. It was repaired with awooden insert measuring 4.2 cm high by 3 cm wide, which extends into the added crescent. There is anotherrepair to the panel along the bottom edge, consisting of a vertically grained wooden insert that measures 3 cm
high by 11 cm wide. There is heavy abrasion to the paint and ground along the entire perimeter, but
especially where the oval crescent was attached. There are also paint losses along the split and in the upper
right quadrant. There is further abrasion in the inkwell, the scholar’s hat, and his cloak, most notably in the
shadows. The “G” in the artist’s monogram is also worn. The varnish is matte and does not fully saturate thepaint. The painting was treated in 2007.
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Technical Summary Endnotes

1. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 10 January 2013.
2. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 10 January 2013.
3. Infrared reflectography was performed by Shawn Digney-Peer at unknown specifications.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection