Woman with a Lapdog, Accompaniedby a Maidservant (probably Bathshebawith King 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
corner of smaller inlaid panel: “Fvan
Mieris_1680”
FM-105© 2020 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 KingDavid’s Letter)” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. NewYork,2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/woman-with-her-lapdog-accompanied-by-a-maidservant/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
Page 3 of 8Frans van Mieris painted this work in 1680, shortly before his death in MarchComparative Figures

1681. The painting exhibits all the features of Van Mieris’s late style,including the warm hues of its color scheme of browns and reds, theporcelain-like finish, and the shimmering highlights created with extremely
fine yet fluid brushstrokes (see also FM-110). These effects allowed Van
Mieris to unite his composition and impart grace and sophistication to hisfigures.[1] The central focus is a young woman with a plunging décolletage
who sits with a small spaniel on the lap of her shiny satin dress. Her whiteface contrasts with the dark and wrinkled visage of an old maidservant, whosmilingly whispers in her ear.[2] As the young woman listens, she gazes tothe side with a slight smile and absentmindedly combs her long hair.[3] Thescene 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 afrolicking putto in the dimly lit background.[5] On the table is an opened letterFig 1. Frans van Mieris the Elder,
The Letter Writer, 1680, oil on
panel, 25 x 19.5 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-261

with a red seal, probably a love letter, an orange, and a glass bottle.
Van Mieris depicted many facets of the letter-writing and letter-receiving
culture throughout the course of his career, including another painting from1680, which shows 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 thepresent painting, which belongs to a group of paintings in which lettersfeature in a more narrative context, such as The Matchmaker, 1671, in
Dresden (fig 2).[7] In The Matchmaker the word “AMOR” appears on a pieceof furniture behind the woman. Dressed in contemporary attire, she holds aletter in her hand while sitting languidly, her left breast exposed. It isprobable that she is Bathsheba, and the gesticulating old woman opposite
her is the procuress or messenger sent by King David, whose wife
Bathsheba would become.[8] The Dresden painting was long considered tobe a simple genre scene involving a love letter, and a similar

Fig 2. Frans van Mieris the Elder,
The Matchmaker (Bathsheba?),
1671, oil on panel 29.5 x 24 cm,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden, 1742

misunderstanding also occurred with a painting of Bathsheba with KingDavid’s Letter, ca. 1659–60, by Van Mieris’s good 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 (seeFM-102). In this manner he was able to suggest the relevance of the biblicalstory to contemporary life. This approach also allowed him to shift thenarrative emphasis from Bathsheba as the object of David’s sexual
attraction to the moral dilemma Bathsheba faced as a married woman.
Nevertheless, in this instance, her evocative gaze clearly foretells the path
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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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 awork by Jan Lievens (1607–74), which was extensively praised by Philips
Angel (ca. 1618–45, or after), a Leiden painter, etcher and art theorist whosework Van Mieris surely knew. In his 1642 treatise, Lof der Schilder Konst,
Angel wrote about the importance of the letter to this biblical story:
Without doubt such a messenger was an old woman well-versed in theart of love, or a procuress, so one calls her, who brought the message,
not simply with her mouth alone, but undoubtedly through a letter (asevidence of a greater authority), which she handed to Bathsheba, wherin
he [David] have [her] to undrstand his sweet consideration, which he hadover [her] . . . thereby igniting a sweet blush of modest shame in her
person, through the reading of the letter . . . such a hot fire of lust musthave been in Bathsheba, whenever the king sought her.[10]Not only does the old woman in Van Mieris’s painting descend directly fromthe procuress Philips Angel describes, but so does “the sweet blush ofmodest shame” on the face of the young woman who, imparting thesignificance 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

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

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; OttoNaumann, 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 of Vermeer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce
Museum of Arts and Sciences) (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 Gallery of 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 inthe 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 vanMieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery ofArt) (New Haven, 2005), 55, fig. 12.
8. For depictions of Bathsheba, see Elisabeth Kunoth-Leifels, Über die Darstellungen der“Bathseba im Bade” (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 theletter held by the young woman in his painting.
10. See Philips Angel, Lof der schilderkonst (Leiden, 1642), 50. The English translation is taken© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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from Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:
114.

Provenance
Adriaan Bout, The Hague (his sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733, no. 54 [van Zwieten for 260f.].
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 thepainting appeared at the public sale in Paris in 1997, coming from an unknown private
collection in Paris, the panel 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 Age of Vermeer,” 31 January–2 May 2004, no. 26 [lent by Salomon Lilian, B. V.,
Amsterdam].

References© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant (probablyBathsheba with King David’s Letter)
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Hoet, 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 translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 10: 59–60, no. 227. 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.
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 Age of Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce
Museum of Arts and Sciences. New Haven, 2003, 148–49, no. 26.
Cornelis, Bart. “Love Letters: Dutch genre paintings” [review of Peter Sutton, ed., LoveLetters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery ofIreland; 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. Editedby Quentin Buvelot, 40, fig. 21, 41, 239, no. 133. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington, National Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 2005.

Technical Summary
The support is a composite panel comprising two slightly differently sized, vertically grained,
rectangular-shaped oak planks set inside one another.[1] This type of inlaid panel construction isfound mostly, but not exclusively, 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 thelarger plank surrounds the smaller plank along all four sides.
The original paint and light-colored ground end at the edges of the smaller panel. An additional
light-colored ground has been applied to the four narrow borders of the larger plank, and thecomposition 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 theoriginal painted composition. An extremely fine horizontal craquelure pattern has formed over theentire original composition, and a more widely spaced horizontal craquelure pattern has formed© 2020 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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through the paint along the left 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 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 rightarm.
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 originallyextended slightly closer to the dog, and that the red tablecloth may have covered more of thefigure’s thigh. In the X-radiograph, 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 radioopaque shape along the upper right quadrant of the image 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 agood 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 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 Willem van Mieris dated 1698.”
3. The composition probably previously extended onto the lower border and was removed
during a past restoration.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection