Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by aMaidservant (probably Bathsheba withKing David’s Letter)
Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

1680
oil on panel
19.3 x 15.5 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, upper left cornerof smaller inlaid panel: “Fvan Mieris_1680”
FM-105© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probably Bathsheba with King David’sLetter)” (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.

Frans van Mieris painted this work in 1680, shortly before his death in March 1681.

Comparative Figures

The painting exhibits all the features of Van Mieris’s late style, including the warmhues of its color scheme of browns and reds, the porcelain-like finish, and theshimmering highlights created with extremely fine yet fluid brushstrokes (see alsoFM-110). These effects allowed Van Mieris to unite his composition and impartgrace and sophistication to his figures.[1] The central focus is a young woman with aplunging décolletage who sits with a small spaniel on the lap of her shiny satin dress.
Her white face contrasts with the dark and wrinkled visage of an old maidservant,who smilingly whispers in her ear.[2] As the young woman listens, she gazes to theside with a slight smile and absentmindedly combs her long hair.[3] The scene seems
to be set after nightfall, making this one of Van Mieris’s few night scenes.[4] That love
is in the air can be deduced from the statue of a frolicking putto in the dimly lit
background.[5] On the table is an opened letter with a red seal, probably a love letter,an orange, and a glass bottle.

Fig 1. Frans van Mieris the Elder, TheLetter Writer, 1680, oil on panel, 25 x
19.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
SK-A-261

Van Mieris depicted many facets of the letter-writing and letter-receiving culture
throughout the course of his career, including another painting from 1680, whichshows a woman writing a letter while a boy waits for her to finish (fig 1).[6] The genre
character of that scene poses a striking contrast with the present painting, which
belongs to a group of paintings in which letters feature in a more narrative context,
such as The Matchmaker, 1671, in Dresden (fig 2).[7] In The Matchmaker the word
“AMOR” appears on a piece of furniture behind the woman. Dressed incontemporary attire, she holds a letter in her hand while sitting languidly, her left
breast exposed. It is probable that she is Bathsheba, and the gesticulating old woman
opposite her is the procuress or messenger sent by King David, whose wife Bathsheba

Fig 2. Frans van Mieris the Elder, The© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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would become.[8] The Dresden painting was long considered to be a simple genre
scene involving a love letter, and a similar misunderstanding also occurred with apainting of Bathsheba with King David’s Letter, ca. 1659–60, by Van Mieris’s good

Matchmaker (Bathsheba?), 1671, oil
on panel 29.5 x 24 cm,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden, 1742

friend Jan Steen (1626–79).[9]The present work also probably depicts the story of Bathsheba, given that Van Mieris
typically located his biblical scenes in domestic settings (see FM-102). In this manner
he was able to suggest the relevance of the biblical story to contemporary life. Thisapproach also allowed him to shift the narrative emphasis from Bathsheba as theobject of David’s sexual attraction to the moral dilemma Bathsheba faced as amarried woman. Nevertheless, in this instance, her evocative gaze clearly foretells thepath she will choose.
The Bible does not mention David writing to Bathsheba, but letters had become
central to depictions of Bathsheba by the time Van Mieris painted this work,
particularly among Leiden artists. The tradition may stem from a work by Jan Lievens(1607–74), which was extensively praised by Philips Angel (ca. 1618–45, or after), aLeiden painter, etcher and art theorist whose work Van Mieris surely knew. In his
1642 treatise, Lof der Schilder Konst, Angel wrote about the importance of the letterto this biblical story:
Without doubt such a messenger was an old woman well-versed in the art oflove, or a procuress, so one calls her, who brought the message, not simply withher mouth alone, but undoubtedly through a letter (as evidence of a greaterauthority), which she handed to Bathsheba, wherin he [David] have [her] toundrstand his sweet consideration, which he had over [her] . . . thereby igniting asweet blush of modest shame in her person, through the reading of the letter . . .
such a hot fire of lust must have been in Bathsheba, whenever the king sought
her.[10]

Not only does the old woman in Van Mieris’s painting descend directly from theprocuress Philips Angel describes, but so does “the sweet blush of modest shame” on
the face of the young woman who, imparting the significance of this most suggestive
moment, gazes evocatively to the side, listening carefully to the words being
whispered in her ear as the opened letter rests by her elbow.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
Page 4 of 7Endnotes
1. Otto Naumann in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 38.
2. The old woman appears in other paintings by the artist; see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris(1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: nos. 87, 116; see also FM-103. The same applies
to the dog.
3. This is the main motif of a painting by Van Mieris dated 1678, Musée du Louvre, Paris; Otto Naumann,Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 114.
4. See Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin
Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven,2005), 38–41.
5. Peter C. Sutton, Lisa Vergara, and Ann Jensen Adams, Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age ofVermeer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts andSciences) (New Haven, 2003), 148.
6. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 118; Peter C.
Sutton, Lisa Vergara, and Ann Jensen Adams, Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer(Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, CT, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences)(New Haven, 2003), no. 24; Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris
1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Galleryof Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 48.
7. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 87; Peter
Sutton, Lisa Vergara, and Anne Jensen Adams, Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer(Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, CT, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences)(New Haven, 2003), no. 25; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 55, fig. 12.
8. For depictions of Bathsheba, see Elisabeth Kunoth-Leifels, Über die Darstellungen der “Bathseba imBade” (Essen, 1962).
9. Private collection; see Peter Sutton, Lisa Vergara, and Anne Jensen Adams, Love Letters: Dutch Genre
Painting in the Age of Vermeer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce
Museum of Arts and Sciences) (New Haven, 2003), no. 25. Steen’s panel clearly depicts the Old
Testament scene of Bathsheba, as her name is inscribed on the letter held by the young woman in hispainting.
10. See Philips Angel, Lof der schilderkonst (Leiden, 1642), 50. The English translation is taken from Otto
Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 114.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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Provenance
Adriaan Bout, The Hague (his sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733, no. 54 [van Zwieten for 260 f.].
Gerard Bicker, Lord of Swieten, The Hague, 1733–38 (his sale, The Hague, 12 April 1741, no. 57).
Bicker van Zwieten Collection, Amsterdam (his sale, The Hague, 4 April 1755, no. 24 [202 f.]).
Private collection, Amsterdam (sale, Amsterdam, 2 August 1830, no. 52 [Manvis for 25 f.]).
James Walker; by inheritance to Mrs. Alexander Boyle (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25
June 1898, no. 68 [S. J. Smith]).[1]Monsieur et Madame B., Paris (their sale, Paris, Drouot, 13 June 1997, no. 48).
[Piet de Boer, Amsterdam, 1997–98][Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, New York, 2003–4].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Provenance Notes

1. The whereabouts of the painting between 1898 and 1997 remains largely unknown. When the painting
appeared at the public sale in Paris in 1997, coming from an unknown private collection in Paris, thepanel had been laid into a much larger panel measuring 27 x 20.5 cm. The expanded portions have since
been removed (see Otto Naumann in his letter to Salomon Lilian, the then owner of the painting, dated
30 September 2002, a copy of which is kept in the painting’s files at the Leiden Collection).

Exhibition History
Greenwich, CT, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences, “Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Ageof Vermeer,” 31 January–2 May 2004, no. 26 [lent by Salomon Lilian, B. V., Amsterdam].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 21 September–31 December 2022 [lent by the present owner].

ReferencesHoet, Gerard and Pieter Terwesten. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen. 3 vols.
The Hague, 1752–70, 1:388, no. 54, 2:15, no. 57, 463, 3: 117, no. 24.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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10: 59–60, no. 227. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols.
Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Burgemeister, Wendela. “Woman with Her Lapdop Accompanied by a Maidservant.” In Salomon Lilian
Old Masters 2003. Amsterdam, 2003, 48–9, no. 16.
Sutton, Peter C., Lisa Vergara, and Anne Jensen Adams. Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Ageof Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Artsand Sciences. New Haven, 2003, 148–49, no. 26.
Cornelis, Bart. “Love Letters: Dutch genre paintings” [review of Peter Sutton, ed., Love Letters: Dutch
Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn.,
Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences. New Haven], Burlington Magazine 145 (2003): 878.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot, 40, fig. 21, 41, 239, no. 133. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, National Galleryof Art. Zwolle, 2005.
Van der Hut, Margreet. Jan van Mieris (1660-1690): His Life and Work. Zaandijk, 2021, 16, 63, fig. 7.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century Dutch GenrePainting. Exh. brochure. San Diego, Timken Museum of Art. San Diego, 2022, n.p., ill.

Technical Summary
The support is a composite panel comprising two slightly differently sized, vertically grained, rectangularshaped oak planks set inside one another.[1] This type of inlaid panel construction is found mostly, but notexclusively, in paintings from the Leiden School.[2]The larger outer plank is unthinned and uncradled, and has bevels along all four edges; there is one red wax
collection seal but no paper labels, import stamps or panel maker’s mark. The smaller plank has been set into
the larger plank, and a 0.5-cm border of the front surface of the larger plank surrounds the smaller plankalong all four sides.
The original paint and light-colored ground end at the edges of the smaller panel. An additional light-coloredground has been applied to the four narrow borders of the larger plank, and the composition has been
extended onto all but the lower border.[3]A fine linear crack in the paint surface around the perimeter of the inset plank delineates the original paintedcomposition. An extremely fine horizontal craquelure pattern has formed over the entire originalcomposition, and a more widely spaced horizontal craquelure pattern has formed through the paint along theleft and right borders.
The paint has been applied over a smooth, light-colored ground in successive thin layers with low
brushmarking and transparent glazing, light over dark. The contours and folds of the red table cloth and the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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figure’s green velvet cloak and gold skirt are slightly raised. The most pronounced contour is that of the red
fabric along the corner of the table, beneath the figure’s proper right arm.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the upper left corner of the smaller inset panel.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. A dark
pentimento along the figure’s proper right thigh suggests that the table corner may have originally extendedslightly closer to the dog, and that the red tablecloth may have covered more of the figure’s thigh. In the Xradiograph, it appears that the base and stem of a wine glass had previously been set on the table in front of
the carafe where the letter is now placed. A large radio-opaque shape along the upper right quadrant of theimage does not relate to the current composition or to anything on the panel reverse.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in a good state ofpreservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and panel reverse
images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the smaller panel has good potential for dendrochronology but
would require access along the obscured endgrain.
2. According to Geero Seelig’s online description of his 2012 CODART Market of Ideas Session, “at least
three panel paintings in Schwerin are constructed in an extraordinary fashion, including one by Willemvan Mieris dated 1698.”
3. The composition probably previously extended onto the lower border and was removed during a past
restoration.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection