Elderly Couple in an Interiorca. 1650–55

Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

oil on panel
52 x 39.6 cm
FM-100Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Buvelot, Quentin. "Elderly Couple in an Interior." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Frans van Mieris the Elder’s fame rests largely on elegant paintings

Comparative Figures

depicting the daily affairs of wealthy citizens (see Woman with a Lapdog,Accompanied by a Maidservant, FM-105; Woman Reading and a Man
Seated at a Table, FM-107; and Young Woman Feeding a Parrot,FM-112), but he he began his career by representing the lower classes.
This early work, datable to 1650–55, shows an elderly couple in a simple
interior, the man lighting his pipe with a burning coal, the woman plucking
a duck. The subject of women cleaning and preparing food for the family
was often featured by Dutch artists from this period, particularly those from
Leiden, as, for example, in a comparable scene from the mid-1650s by
Abraham de Pape (before 1621–66) (fig 1).[1] In Van Mieris’s painting, theman turns in his chair to look at the viewer, as though urging us toacknowledge the woman’s domestic virtue. She concentrates entirely on
her task, and although she has endeavored to save the bird’s feathers in aFig 1. Abraham de Pape, Old
Woman Plucking a Rooster, ca.
1650–55, oil on panel, 49 x 41cm, The Royal Picture Gallery
Mauritshuis, The Hague, 138

wicker basket (the apparent cleanliness of the house is another example ofher virtues as a housewife), some have fallen on the wooden floor in frontof her.
Van Mieris depicted the elderly man lighting his pipe because this motifenhanced the realistic character of the scene: burning embers only glow inthe bowl of the pipe when a smoker actually inhales. He adapted this motif
from his teacher Gerrit Dou (1613–75), who included it at least twice in hispaintings, once around 1635 when he depicted an elderly man lighting apipe,[2] and a second time around 1645, when he made an illusionistic
painting in which an artist leans out of a window niche holding a lit pipe inFig 2. Frans van Mieris the Elder,Saying Grace, ca. 1650–55, oil onpanel, 34.3 x 40 cm, National
Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.,
Corcoran Collection (William A.
Clark Collection), 2014.136.31

his hand.[3]Although Van Mieris was greatly influenced by Dou’s style and subject
matter, he would quickly distinguish himself from his master. Even in his
early paintings one can detect that Van Mieris, in the true spirit ofaemulatio, strove to outdo his master in a number of ways. For example,
around 1655 he began to paint with a luminosity unknown to his master,and he combined this heightened concern for the reflections of sunlight onobjects with an increased precision in handling.[4] Here, he has illuminatedthe protagonists with sunlight falling into the room through a leaded-glass
window. Van Mieris silhouetted the figures against a background shrouded
in darkness, where one can barely make out the curtain of a bed and a bed
pan. In the foreground he grouped together a number of domestic
items—a broom, a bucket, and a shoe—to create a repoussoir that helps© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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establish a sense of spatial recession.
Van Mieris’s early works do not yet reveal the highly sophisticated paletteof his later years, but they are not at all limited in color. In his early
paintings he favored broad areas with strong local colors, among themvivid reds, blues and yellows. The rustic reds in one of Van Mieris’s signed
paintings, A Peasant Meal, and the relatively unblended blues and yellows
in Saying Grace (fig 2) are cases in point.[5] The existence of such strong
reds in Elderly Couple in an Interior is one basis for attributing thisunsigned work to the young Van Mieris. Moreover, a number of objects inthis painting are found in Van Mieris’s other early works, including asimilarly designed birdcage placed before the window in A Peasant Meal
and an identical chair in Saying Grace.[6] Finally, the shape of the curved
wooden beams in room’s interior are comparable to those in the latterwork. It is striking that the iconography of these early works is uniformly
positive.
When this painting was in the collection of the Barons Fisher, it wasbelieved to be by the Leiden painter Abraham de Pape (before1621–66).[7] Later, in 1991, at a public sale in London, the painting wasattributed to another Leiden artist, Dominicus van Tol (ca. 1635–76).[8] The
correct attribution to Van Mieris was made by Otto Naumann.[9]-Quentin Buvelot© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Elderly Couple in an Interior
Page 5 of 7Endnotes
1. Eric Jan Sluijter et al., Leidse fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge,1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), no. 62, ill.;
Quentin Buvelot, with contributions by C. Vermeeren, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis: ASummary Catalogue, (The Hague-Zwolle, 2004), 230–32, no. 130, ill.
2. Private collection; see 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) (Washington, D.C., 2000), no. 5.
3. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-86; see 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) (Washington, D.C.,
2000), no. 16.
4. Otto Naumann in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 28.
5. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:11,no. 6; and 2:7–8, no. 1; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. TheHague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 76–78, no. 3,and 29, fig. 1.
6. In the present painting, a vertical shadow to the right of the window shows through thebirdcage, indicating that the cage was added at a later stage by the artist, who apparently
made a number of compositional changes during the paint stage, as was pointed out in areport by Annette Rupprecht, paintings conservator.
7. Dutch Paintings from East Anglia (Exh. cat. Norwich, Castle Museum) (Norwich, 1966), 14,no. 32.
8. See Provenance.
9. Otto Naumann in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot, (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 28, 29, fig. 2, 216 n.
1, 238, no. 122.

Provenance
Probably Cecil Vavasseur (1868–1955), 2nd Baron Fisher; by inheritance to John Vavasseur(1921–2012), 3rd Baron Fisher, Kilverston Hall, Thetford, Norfolk [as by Abraham de Pape].
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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(Christie’s, London, 13 December 1991, no. 152 [as “Attributed to Dominicus van Tol”]).
[Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York, 1991–92].
Dr. Paul S. Barr, Suffern, New York, 1992.
[Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York, 1992].
B. van Deun, Oberageri, Switzerland, 1996 [Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
King’s Lynn, Guildhall of Saint George, King’s Lynn Festival, “Loan Exhibition of 17thCentury Dutch Oil Paintings,” 19 July–2 August 1952, no. 20.
Norwich, Castle Museum, “Dutch Paintings from East Anglia,” 20 July–29 August 1966, 14,
no. 32 [as by Abraham de Pape, lent by Lord Fisher].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection From New York,” 9March–31 August 2014 [lent by the 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].

References
Loan Exhibition of 17 th-Century Dutch Oil Paintings. Exh. cat. King’s Lynn, Guildhall of St.
George. King’s Lynn, 1952, no. 20.
Dutch Paintings from East Anglia . Exh. cat. Norwich, Castle Museum. Norwich, 1966, 14,
no. 32.
Naumann, Otto and Buvelot, Quentin. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. Zwolle,
2005, 28, 29, no. 2, 216 n. 1, 238, no. 122.

Technical Summary
The support is a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular wedge-shaped oak with diagonallyoriented rays.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled, has bevels along all but the thinnervertical edge, and has mechanical toolmarks along the nonbeveled panel interior. On the verso is© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Elderly Couple in an Interior
Page 7 of 7a gold wax collection seal, three black stencils, and an illegible pen inscription on a paper taperemnant, but no paper labels, import stamps or panel maker’s mark.
A thinly and evenly applied white ground accentuates the wood grain and spills over onto thepanel edges. The paint covers the ground completely and has been applied smoothly in thinlayers with low brushmarking and transparent glazing light over dark. In raking light the verticalwood grain is pronounced, as are the outer contours and drapery folds of both figures’ clothes,
the chairs they sit on, the wicker basket, and the wooden bucket.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Visible compositional changes include the male figure’s proper right hand and pipe lighter, whichwere shifted closer to his torso. The shape of his hat was also altered.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2004 and remains in an excellent state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph andpanel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential fordendrochronology.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection