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© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Scholar Sharpening His Quill” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-scholar-sharpeninghis-quill/ (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.

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

Comparative Figures

is seated at his study before an open book. With clenched chin and furrowed
brow, he cautiously attempts to slice the tip of a quill pen, using the soft padof his thumb to balance 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 end of 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 ofscholarly concern, the need to prepare his writing instrument to allow for theproper transmission of his thoughts 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 notion of sharpening one’s

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)

intellect through practice was exemplified by the Latin idiom nil penna sed
usus (“not the pen but its use”), and was illustrated in emblematic literatureby the ostrich, a flightless bird whose feather quills were used for writing (fig1).[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 and scholars in the late 1620s and early 1630s. The sitter in thisFig 2. Gerrit Dou, Scholar© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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painting, one of the most frequently depicted models in Leiden at the time,came to be known much later in the art historical literature as “Rembrandt’s

Sharpening His Quill, ca. 1632, oil
on panel, octagonal, 21 x 18 cm,
whereabouts unknown

father,” due to his frequent appearance in that artist’s work during his
Leiden period (see also GD-109).[3] Dou features this model in a number ofpaintings 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 same model.[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 a second version of a composition that wasformerly in the collection of James Simon in Berlin (fig 2).[7] That now-lostversion differs from the present work in both its octagonal format and its

Fig 3. Willem Joseph Laquy after
Gerrit Dou, The Night School, ca.
1770, oil on canvas, 83 x 70 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-2320-B

more restricted iconography. It does not include, for example, 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 of thepainting formerly in Berlin is a pentimento in the ink well of the Leiden
Collection work. This pentimento reveals that Dou initially painted the ink wellin the same 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 a shirt brocaded with delicate golden threads. His
sharpening tool is appointed with costly ornamentation, details that appear atodds with his humble surroundings. Despite the scholar’s enhanced
appearance, he remains reliant on seeing through his spectacles, evenFig 4. Gerrit Dou, An Old
Schoolmaster Cutting His Pen,
1671, oil on panel, 32.2 x 24.9 cm,
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, inv. no.
1709

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 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 depictionof an aging scholar devotedly tending to his task would have been seen as apoignant reminder of life’s potentials and limits. Dou must have drawn© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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inspiration from the academic surroundings of his native Leiden, the site ofone of Europe’s oldest universities. In this context, education and learning
were paramount, and elder scholars embodied values and dilemmas thatmade 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 repetitionand 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, Dou featured a pen cutter in one of the wings of the lostBraamcamp triptych, from about 1660, known only through an eighteenthcentury 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 whicha group of school children learning to write are visible in the background (fig4).[10]- Domique Surh, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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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 thetripartite Aristotelian notion of Natura, Disciplina, and Exercitatio. See Jan Baptist Bedaux,ed., Pride and Joy: Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500–1700 (Exh. cat. Haarlem,Frans Halsmuseum; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) (Ghent andAmsterdam, 2000), 19–22. Jan A. Emmens was the first to explore Dou’s incorporation ofthese 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 inabbreviated 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 am worthless 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 Globein 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 lesmarchaunds 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 the example 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.
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7. The version, which was subsequently with art dealers A. S. Drey, Munich, in 1925, and laterwith D. Katz, Dieren, may be equivalent with one or both of the other two versions known only
through sale records (see Versions). It is likely that the drawing by Oyens and the print by
Waanders were made after this variant.
8. For a useful summary of the depiction of spectacles in art, see Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance
Vision from Spectacles 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 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) (Zwolle, 2000), 17 and 120, no. 28.
10. Annegret Laabs and Christoph Scho?lzel, 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 Hoedfor 110 florins]).
André de Stolberg, Count of Brabeck, Söder (his sale, Rumpler, Hannover, 31 October 1859,
no. 78 [for 500 florins]).
King George V of Hannover (1819–78), 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, by 1864;
confiscated when 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 descent to 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© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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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 [lent by the government holding the endowment belonging to King George V].
Hannover, Provinzial Museum, on loan in the Fideicommiss-Galerie, 1892–1924 [lent as
inalienable property on trust (in fidei commissum) of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneberg].
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 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,” 9March–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 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of 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 thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The 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 van jaaren zoo. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 2:16, no. 66.
Das K?nigliche Welfen-museum. Das K?nigliche Welfen-museum zu Hannover im Jahre
1863. Hannover, 1864, 85, no. 132.
Das K?nigliche Welfen-museum. K?nigliche Welfen-museum der zum Verm?gen des K?nigs
George V Geh?renden Gem?lde welche sich in dem House Nr. 3 der Landschaftstrasse zu
Hannover befinden. Hannover, 1876, 85, no. 465.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Katalog der zum Ressort der Königlichen Verwaltungs-Kommission gehörigen Sammlung vonGemälden,

Skulpturen

undAlterthümern

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
schildersleven van 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 Gem?lden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum Rudolf v.
Bennigsenstrasse 1 zu Hannover. Hannover, 1902, 100, no. 118.
Eisenmann, Oscar. Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig
und Lüneburg gehörigen Sammlung von Gem?lden 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 andtranslatedby Edward G. Hawke, 1: 361, no. 56. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originallypublished 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 lesmarchaunds 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 by Wayne 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 Scho?lzel. 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© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Scholar Sharpening His Quill
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Quentin Buvelot, 73, under nos. 1-2. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, D.C.,
National Gallery of Art. 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 aGroup 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.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in theGolden Age.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Editedby 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 from The 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 andVermeer: 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 and the 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 andArabic.]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© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Scholar Sharpening His Quill
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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

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 insale, 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 threequarters of the way around the perimeter, along all but the upper right quadrant when viewed fromthe 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 it probably contains a lead-based pigment. The X-radiographs show a lightarea around the figure, indicating that 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© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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gold handle of 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 paintwere used.[1] The purple cloak of the scholar was created with red lake and indigo. Red lake is afugitive 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’s changes.[3] The inkpot was
moved to the right, originally located where the compass now lies; the knuckles of the 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 fromthe front and there is a vertical split in the panel stemming from the center of the top edge. It was
repaired with a wooden insert measuring 4.2 cm high by 3 cm wide, which extends into the added
crescent. There is another repair to the panel along the bottom edge, consisting of a verticallygrained wooden insert that measures 3 cm high by 11 cm wide. There is heavy abrasion to thepaint 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” inthe artist’s monogram is also worn. The varnish is matte and does not fully saturate the paint.
The painting was treated in 2007.

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.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection