Young Man Readingca. 1650

Jacob van Loo(Sluis 1614 – 1670 Paris)

oil on panel
48.5 x 38.6 cm
signed in highlight and shadow, in light and dark
paint, lower left: “I.V.Loo.”
JvL-100
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
Page 2 of 8

How To Cite
Libby, Alexandra. "Young Man Reading." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
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When Jacob van Loo turned his brush to the human figure, his subject was[1]

usually the female nude.

Comparative Figures

He was known for orienting these nudes on a

vertical canvas and enveloping them in soft light that allowed shadows todance across the exquisitely rendered fabrics barely covering theirluminous skin.[2] He nuanced their gestures and facial expressions somuch that one could easily imagine their thoughts and personalities. With asimilar sensitivity to his subject’s psychological character, Van Loo
captures in this evocative painting the intent concentration of a young man
reading.
The young man, who sits on a chest or bench as he leans on a box thatFig 1. Detail of foot warmer in
Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid(detail), ca. 1660, oil on canvas,
45.5 x 41 cm, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, SK-A-2344

resembles a foot warmer (fig 1), grips the sides of his thin book ormanuscript, the spine of which he has fully inverted, as he carefully studies
the text. Van Loo has focused on the figure far more than on the room inwhich the youth sits. The floor-to-ceiling wood panels and wooden doors
and simple wooden floor create a visual symphony of tonal browns, butthese varied architectural forms are difficult to interpret either spatially orfunctionally. The youth does not appear to sit in a normal room of a house,but perhaps in a transitional space between the inside and outside, suchas a mud room or entrance hall. The objects hanging on the wall partiallycovered by cloths appear to be violins or violas. Perhaps the young man iswaiting for a music lesson, and is here pictured using his last few minutesof free time to study a musical score.

Fig 2. Jacob van Loo, MusicalCompany, ca. 1665/66, oil oncanvas, 73.3 x 66 cm, ThyssenBornemisza Collection, Madrid,inv. no. 1930.47

Although the room is rather indeterminate, the young man’s clothing isfashionable. His brass-buttoned jacket, knee-length pants with piping
around the openings, and tall white knee socks reflect a French-inspired
style popular in the late 1640s and early 1650s.[3] Among youths at thistime, it was also in vogue to leave only the upper part of the jacket
buttoned so as to reveal part of the white shirt underneath. Though hatsvaried little during the seventeenth century, by the 1650s they did tend tobe taller and more cylindrical, as is the hat resting beside the young manthat presumably belongs to him.[4] A dating of around 1650 for this painting
thus seems probable. This dating is also consistent with the results of thedendochronological analysis of the panel, which indicates a felling date ofaround 1635 (see technical notes).
Given the young man’s stylish attire, it is plausible that he is preparing for

Fig 3. Gerrit Dou, Prince Rupertof the Palatinate and an Elderly
Man (Probably His Teacher) as
Samuel and Eli, 1631/1632, oil oncanvas, 102.9 x 88.7 cm, J. Paul
Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv.
no. 84.PA.570

a music lesson. Music was a passion of the privileged elite, and Dutch© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
Page 4 of 8artists often depicted musical themes. Typically, however, artists focusedon musical ensembles already engaged in the act rather than musicians
preparing for a lesson, as it offered the opportunity to show amorous
interactions between men and women given that the playing of music
metaphorically referred to the unison of lovers’ hearts. It was an image Van
Loo himself would depict in the mid-1660s (fig 2).
Young Man Reading is not only unusual among genre images featuring
music, but also among those depicting figures reading books. Generally,
those reading books (as opposed to letters) in Dutch art are elderly
women,[5] scholars in their studios,[6] or saints, such as Saint Paul or Saint
Jerome.[7] Occasionally one finds depictions of young boys reading booksin the presence of a mentor or instructor, but these are few in number(fig3).[8] In this regard, Van Loo’s painting occupies a special place in thegenre of reading imagery. Not a scholar, saint, or young man receiving
instruction, it is an image of the true joy and the pleasure of a book and its
ability to captivate and engross.
-Alexandra Libby© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980), 3, 172; Albert Blankert, ed., Dutch Classicism in Seventeenth-CenturyPaintings (Exh. cat. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen; Frankfurt am Main,
Städelsches Kunstinstitut) (Rotterdam, 1999), no. 26.
2. Wayne Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic
Evolution (New Haven, 2004), 176.
3. J. H. Der Kinderen-Besier, Spelevaart der Mode: De Kledij onzer voorouders in dezeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam, 1950), 135.
4. J. H. Der Kinderen-Besier, Spelevaart der Mode: De Kledij onzer voorouders in dezeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam, 1950), 137.
5. Examples of old women reading are found in the oeuvres of Gerrit Dou (1613–75),
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69), and Ferdinand Bol (1616–80), among others. See RonniBaer, 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) (New Haven, 2000), no. 2, 66–67; Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings , vol. 1, 1625–1631, ed.
Josua Bruyn et al. (The Hague, Boston, and London, 1982), 1:356; and Sabine Schulze etal., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt bis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt amMain, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt) (Stuttgart, 1993), no. 7, 142–43.
6. For examples by Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) and Gerrit Dou, see Volker Manuth, ed.,Wisdom, Knowledge and Magic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch
Art (Exh. cat. Kingston, Agnes Etherington Art Centre) (Kingston, 1997), no. 9, 44–45; andSabine Schulze et al., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt bis Vermeer (Exh.
cat. Frankfurt am Main, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt) (Stuttgart, 1993), no. 23, 178–79.
7. Jan Lievens (1607–74) painted an image of Saint Paul (see Volker Manuth, ed.,Wisdom,Knowledge and Magic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art [Exh.
cat. Kingston, Agnes Etherington Art Centre] [Kingston, 1997], no. 23, 64–65) and Hendrick
Bloemaert (ca. 1601–72) painted an image of Saint Jerome (see Sabine Schulze et al.,Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt bis Vermeer [Exh. cat. Frankfurt amMain, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt] [Stuttgart, 1993], no. 5, 136–39). In images of the four
Evangelists, Saint Mark is usually portrayed reading. See Hendrick ter Brugghen’s(1588–1629) St. John in Sabine Schulze et al., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei vonRembrandt bis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt am Main, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt)(Stuttgart, 1993), no. 18, 164–65, 167.
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
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8. Jan Lievens also produced an image of such tutelage. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed.,JanLievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2009), no.
29, 138–39.

ProvenanceAntoine Delacoux de Marivault (Marivaux) (sale, Paris, 27 January–3 February 1806, no. 31;
sale, Paris, 10–11 June 1806, no. 58).
Frédéric Quilliet, Paris (his sale, Paris, 15–17 April 1818, no. 200).
Charles Auguste Louis Joseph de Morny, Duc de Morny (1811–65) (pseud. M. de SaintRémy), by 1839.
Dufraisne collection, Cambrai, by 1876.
Anatole Demidoff (1813–70), Principe di San Donato, Villa Demidoff, Palais de San Donato,Florence; by descent to his nephew Paul Demidoff (1839–1925) (his sale, 15 March–13 April
1880, no. 1100).
Private collection.
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, 2007; Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2007].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition HistoryAngers, Societe d’Agriculture, des Sciences et Arts d’Angers, “Exposition de Peinture etSculpture Anciennes,” 31 May–30 June 1839, no. 793 and no. 16 [lent by Duc de Morny(pseud. M. de Saint-Rémy)].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August
2009–November 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,”
22 February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from TheLeiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Reading
Page 7 of 8References
Societe d’Agriculture, Sciences et Arts d’Angers. Exposition de Peinture et SculptureAnciennes. Exh. cat. supplement vol., Angers, 1839, 68, no. 793.
Societe d’Agriculture, Sciences et Arts d’Angers. Souvenirs de l’Exposition de Peinture etSculpture Anciennes de 1839. With illustrations by Pierre Hawke. Angers, 1840, 31–32, no.
16.
Michiels, Alfred. Histoire de la peinture flamande depuis ses debuts jusqu’en 1864 . 2ndrevised edition. 10 vols. Paris, 1876, 10:34.
Von Würzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon; Auf Grund archivalischerForschungen bearbeitet. Vienna and Leipzig, 1910, 2:64.
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Peronnet, Benjamin et al., eds. Répertoire des tableauxvendus en France au XIXe siècle. 1 vol. to date. Los Angeles, 1998, 1:650.
Mandrella, David. Jacob van Loo, 1614–1670. Paris, 2011, 25, no. 29, 26, 76, 78, 138–39.

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Pierre Hawke, after Jacob van Loo, L’Étudiant, line engraving, in Souvenirs de l’Expositionde Peinture et Sculpture Anciennes de 1839 (Angers, 1840), no. 16.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support is a rectangular composite panel comprised of two radially cut, vertically grained
Baltic oak planks of different widths. The vertical panel join is located to the right of center andpasses through the figure’s proper left thigh. The planks derive from the same tree with anearliest fell date of 1627, and the painting may be given a plausible creation date from 1635
on.[1] The panel has been thinned and cradled and oak blocks have been inserted between theupper and lower ends of the vertical cradle members to reinforce the support. There are two© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Man Reading
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paper labels and two handwritten inscriptions, but no wax seals, import stamps, stencils,
machine toolmarks or panel maker’s marks.
A creamy white ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied thinlyand smoothly along the majority of the painting and with more refined, opaque, slightly raised
brushwork along the highlights of the flesh tones, the white of the shirt, stockings, and decorative
details of the hat of the seated figure, and along the edge of the book being read. The figure’s
garment folds have been created using varying paint translucency, and the highlights of thejacket and trousers have been created by allowing the light-colored ground to show through thethin brown wash, which contrasts with the darker opaque areas of browns and grays.
The painting is signed in highlight and shadow in light and dark paint along the lower left corner,
but is undated.
Infrared images captured at 900–1700 nanometers detected underdrawing along the figure’s
chin and hands. Dark lines along the upper contour of the drapery at the far left and short lines
around it appear to be above the paint, not underdrawn. Underpainting appears as a very loosely
painted dark shape where the door is presently located, possibly suggesting a fabric previously
hung to the right of the door. A pentimento along the boy’s proper right foot indicates it wasoriginally smaller and located slightly higher.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2007 and remains
in good condition.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s 2011 dendrochronology reportand an unsigned and undated (possibly August 2011) examination report prepared by thePaintings Conservation Department, J. Paul Getty Museum.
2. Entry based on an examination report prepared by Yvonne Szafran, head of paintings
conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011, and additional information
provided by e-mail by Devi Ormond, associate paintings conservator, J. Paul Getty Museum.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection