Bookkeeper at His Desk

ca. 1627

Jan Lievens(Leiden 1607 – 1674 Amsterdam)oil on panel
89.7 x 72.7 cm
signed in dark paint, lower left corner: “L”
JL-101
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 2 of 8

How To Cite
Surh, Dominique. "Bookkeeper at His Desk." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
This page is available on the site's Archive. PDF of every version of this page is available on the Archive,
and the Archive is managed by a permanent URL. Archival copies will never be deleted. New versions areadded only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 3 of 8

Seated at his desk amidst a stack of books and notarized documents, anComparative Figures

old man focuses on a page propped up by a book as intense light fallingfrom the upper left casts a dramatic play of light and shadow over thescene. Light provides the expressive means by which Jan Lievens hascreated a series of powerful opposites, for example the brightness of thewhite pages of the book in the background versus the darkness offoreground stack of books, or the radiant lemon-yellow of the sunlit portionof the man’s cloak as opposed to the deep grays of its shaded rightshoulder and arm. Such chiaroscuro effects also play out on the man’sface, where pinkish folds around the man’s left eye and cheek give way to
deep shadows on its opposite side. Light also accentuates the wrinkles in
his forehead and picks out the long strands of hair in his beard andmustache.
One could imagine that Constantijn Huygens had a painting such as this inFig 1. Jan Lievens, The PenCutter, ca. 1627, oil on canvas,
127 x 107.5 cm, Wallraf-RichartzMuseum & Fondation Corboud,on permanent loan from Sal.
Oppenheim Collection, Inv.nr.
WRM Dep. 943

mind when, after visiting the artist’s studio in or around 1628, he praised
Jan Lievens for his audacious themes and forms and for his extraordinary
ability to depict the human face.[1] Indeed, the present work typifies
Lievens’s bold handling of paint while exemplifying his ability to capture
the physical and emotional states of his subjects. The sitter’s remarkablephysiognomy is achieved through a wide variety of brushstrokes thatdefine his network of wrinkles and sagging folds and frame his face with asoft mane of tousled hair. The old man’s downcast eyes are bloodshot andbetray a lapsing focus, implying that he has spent many hours doing
mental work. A sense of elapsed time is further suggested by the positionFig 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, The
Goldweigher, 1627, oil on panel,
31.9 x 42.5 cm, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin,Gemӓldegalerie, inv. no, 828D, ©
Jörg P. Andersof the old man’s black cap, which is tipped to the back of his head as
though a stretch and a sigh have just transpired, signaling the end of a fullday’s work.
Huygens also remarked that the artist’s brimming self-assurance led him
to work in a scale larger than life. Indeed, the present work relates to anumber of other half-length single figures executed in the artist’s ambitious
scale. Many of these portray elder wise men in the guise of apostles orevangelists surrounded by tattered manuscripts and books, and show
them reading, contemplating, or in the act of writing.[2] The type of books
and documents on the desk and leaning against the wall, which show
numbers and canceled notations, suggests that the man in this painting isa bookkeeper or an accountant. The prominent book in the foregroundcontaining the merchant’s mark “LI” with the numeral 4, identifies the bookFig 3. Jan Lievens, A Bearded
Old Man with a Book, ca.
1626–27, chalk drawing, 166 x
134 mm, Hessisches
Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, inv.
no. AE 672© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 4 of 8

as a ledger.[3]This painting relates thematically and compositionally to Lievens’s The
Pen Cutter, now on loan at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum from the Sal.
Oppenheim Collection (fig 1). This work similarly features a single figure
seated at a desk surrounded by books and documents, but shows the manin the act of sharpening a quill, with an hourglass and moneybags on hisdesk. This painting has generally been dated to ca. 1627 on the basis of its
closethematic

connection

toRembrandt

vanRijn’sTheGoldweigher, dated 1627 (fig 2).[4] It seems probable that Bookkeeper atHis Desk was painted at approximately the same time, ca. 1627.[5]Lievens employed an expressive technique of incising into the wet paintFig 4. X-radiograph ofBookkeeper at His Desk(JL-101), upside down (withsuppressed cradle visibility)with the back of the brush to emphasize the wiry texture of the old man’s
hair. By using highlights and lowlights that create a contrasting network ofhair, Lievens evoked a sense of depth and movement. This technique,which Rembrandt and Lievens both used in the mid- to late 1620s andwhich perhaps derived from their early efforts in etching, is indicative of
their close collaboration and the shared continuum of their ideas. Lievens’streatment of the sitter’s beard in the present work is also consistent withhis work in etching and chalk, as in his red chalk drawing in Darmstadt,ABearded Old Man with a Book (fig 3). The similarity of the sitter’s position
with regard to the picture plane, emphasizing the oblique angle of theman’s head and the diagonal lines in the composition, suggests the sketch
may have served as an early study for the figure in this painting.
X-radiographs reveal an earlier composition beneath this image. Oriented
upside down, it depicts a three-quarter-length portrait of a man in a hatwith a lace ruff (fig 4). Dendrochronological data indicates the earliest useof the panel from 1603 onward, leaving a period of around two decades
during which the portrait could be dated.[6] The style of this underlying
portrait is unlike anything Lievens is known to have painted in his earlyyears and must have been painted by another hand. Lievens is known tohave acquired inexpensive panels during his Leiden years, and thispreviously used panel may have been one of those.[7]-Dominique Surh© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. For a recent translation of Huygens’s account, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed.,Jan Lievens:
A Dutch Master Rediscovered (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (NewHaven, 2008), 286–87.
2. See, for example, St. Paul, St. Peter, and The Four Evangelists from ca. 1624–47, illustrated
in Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), nos. 4, 5, 8–10.
3. B. A. Yamey, “Account Book Covers in Some Vanitas Still-Life Paintings,” Journal of theWarburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 (1984): 229–31; also in Art and Accounting (NewHaven and London, 1989), 108–9. One of the more common marks in the Low Countries
incorporated the numeral 4 with the merchant’s initials. Although speculative, the merchant’s
mark may have referenced the accounting ledger of Lievens’s father, who earned his
livelihood as a cloth merchant and embroiderer.
4. The interpretation of The Goldweigher has ranged from the portrayal of Avarice to theillustration of a biblical parable; see Bob van den Boogart, “An Old Usurer Examining aCoin,” in The Mystery of the Young Rembrand t, ed. Bernhard Schnackenburgand and Ernst
van de Wetering (Exh. cat. Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister;Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Wolfratshausen, 2001), 210–13, no. 29.
5. Not surprisingly, Bookkeeper at His Desk was once thought to be by Rembrandt. It was first
attributed to Lievens by Hans Schneider, Jan Lievens, sein Leben und seine Werke(Haarlem, 1932; repr. with a supplement by R. E. O Ekkart, Amsterdam, 1973), 110, 325,
no. 74. Nevertheless, the painting continued to be attributed to Rembrandt throughout thetwentieth century, until a distinctive Lievens monogram “L” at the lower left was uncovered
when the painting was restored in Paris in 2003 by Pierre Bucat.
6. Bookkeeper at His Desk consists of three oak boards, the youngest heartwood of which wasformed in 1592. With the requisite years of seasoning, Peter Klein calculates the earliest
possible painting date as 1603, with a more likely plausibility from 1609 onward.
7. E. Melanie Gifford, “Lievens’ Technique: ‘Wonders in Smeared Paint, Varnishes, and Oils,’”in Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), 42–43.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 6 of 8Provenance
Basil Beridge, Algarkirk Hall, Lincolnshire (his sale, London, 8 April 1911, no. 23 [£514 toPartridge, Lewis, & Simmons, London], as by Rembrandt).
[Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, by 1921, as by Rembrandt].
Duc de G. (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 May 1925, no. 11 [80,000 francs toPinchon], as by Rembrandt).
Armand Esders (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 28 May 1941, no. 16, as by Rembrandt [A. deRouvre, Paris, 1947]).
Private collection, France [Salomon Lilian, B. V., Amsterdam, 2005].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connectionin the Age of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art, 27October–12 December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14
March 2012, no. 23 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection,April 2012–July 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
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Rembrandt: Wiedergefundene Gemälde (1910–1920) in 120
Abbildungen. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921, 26, no. 109, as attributed to Rembrandt.
Bredius, Abraham. “Wiedergefundene ‘Rembrandts.’” Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 56, no.
32 (1921): 151, no. 109, as most likely by Lievens.
Van Dyke, John C. Rembrandt and His School: A Critical Study of the Master and His
Pupils with a New Assignment of Their Pictures. New York, 1923, 123–24, no. 26.100.
Schneider, Hans. Jan Lievens: Sein Leben und seine Werke . Haarlem, 1932, 110, no. 74.
Reprinted with supplement by Rudolf Otto Ekkart. Amsterdam, 1973, 325, no. 74.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 7 of 8Von Schneider, Arthur. Caravaggio und die Niederländer. Marburg and Lahn, 1933, 73.
Bauch, Kurt. Die Kunst des jungen Rembrandt. Heidelberg, 1933, 220.
Bauch, Kurt. “Rembrandt und Lievens.” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 11 (1939): 258–59.
Bauch, Kurt. Der frühe Rembrandt und sein Zeit: Studien zur geschichtlichen Bedeutungseines Frühstils. Berlin, 1960, 265–66 n. 184.
Bauch, Kurt. “Zum Werk des Jan Lievens (II).” Pantheon 25 (1967): 262.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau, 1983,
3:1794, 1874, under no. 1235.
Surh, Dominique. “A Philosopher.” In Salomon Lilian: Old Masters 2005 . Sales cat.
Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian B. V. Amsterdam, 2005, 28–31, no. 8.
Surh, Dominique. “A Bookkeeper at His Desk.” In Communication: Visualizing the Human
Connection in the Age of Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat. Kyoto, Kyoto
Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art.
Tokyo, 2011, 128–29, no. 23.

Technical Summary
The support is a rectangular composite panel composed of three vertically grained Baltic oakplanks: a wide central plank flanked by two narrower planks. Planks 2 and 3 are from the sametree, and the earliest creation date of the painting is 1603.[1] There are no bevels, and the panel
has been cradled. There is one paper label and two white chalk inscriptions but no wax seals,
import stamps, stencils or panel maker’s marks.
The X-radiograph reveals an earlier three-quarter-length portrait of a male wearing a white ruff
oriented upside down below the present composition.[2] In raking light, the figure-eight-shaped
curves of the underlying ruff are visible in the book in the foreground of the present composition,and the slightly raised thumb and curved fingers of the figure’s proper right hand can be seen tothe right of the visible man’s head.
A warm, light-colored ground is thinly and evenly applied. A dark underlayer shows through theupper two-thirds of the composition, and a light tan underlayer shows through the lower third ofthe composition. The underlayers presumably relate to the earlier portrait located below thepresent composition. The paint has been applied with visible brushwork and texture through thefigure’s forehead, beard, and yellow cloak, and thinly with loose transparent brushwork along theupper right corner. Portions of the figure’s beard hairs have been inscribed in wet paint with theback of a brush.
No underdrawing is evident with infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The images
suggest the man’s proper left shoulder and sleeve may have been shifted to the left during thepaint stage.
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Bookkeeper at His Desk
Page 8 of 8

The painting is signed with a single letter in dark paint along the lower left corner.
The painting was cleaned and restored in Paris in 2003, at which time the monogram wasdiscovered.[3] It has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2006 andremains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s 2008 dendrochronology report.
2. According to email correspondence with Dominique Surh, Leiden Collection curator, “Theman in the ruff is unlike any portrait type Lievens had/or was doing at the time, suggestingthat the panel was previously used by an artist other than Lievens himself.”
3. According to Dominique Surh, Leiden Collection curator.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection