Scholar Interrupted at His Writing
Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1635
oil on oval panel
24.5 x 20 cm
signed, on a piece of paper protruding from theopen book: “GDou” (GD in ligature)
GD-102© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Scholar Interrupted at His Writing” (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.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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An elderly scholar glances up from his writing to gaze directly at the viewer. With

Comparative Figures

pen paused on the paper before him, he sits at his desk where an open book leans
against a globe and a pen case lies obliquely along the table edge. Among Gerrit Dou’s
numerous paintings of a scholar in his study, none focuses so directly on a specificmoment in time as does this compelling masterpiece, one of the most finely
accomplished works in the artist’s early mature style. The old man’s alert pose andfleeting expression create the sense of an arrested moment, whereas Dou’s careful
rendering of the scholar’s aging features, including his thinning hair and finely
wrinkled skin, reveals a keen awareness of time’s inevitable passing. The artist
reiterates this emphasis by depicting an hourglass with fine sand trickling through its
narrow neck.
Dou concentrates our attention on the scholar’s expression through a delicate play oflight and shadow on his face. Light flooding in from the left highlights his forehead
and the tip of his nose, leaving his eyes dimly lit in shadow. This focus is heightened

Fig 1. Gerrit Dou, An Interior with
Young Violinist, 1637, oil on panel,arched top, 31.1 x 23.7 inches,
National Gallery of Scotland,
Edinburgh, NG 2420

by the glowing light on the column, which contrasts with the shadow on the man’sface and the darkness of the background. The open book casts a subtle reflection oflight back onto his face, seeming to embody the way its contents illuminate him andfurther reinforcing the psychological intensity of his gaze.
Dou’s mastery of lighting and compositional balance in Scholar Interrupted suggeststhat he executed this work around 1635. Another point of reference for this date, as
Baer has noted, is the close compositional similarity between this work andRembrandt’s etched Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert, dated 1635.[1] The painting
also shares much in common with another small-scale panel from 1637, Dou’s earliest
extant dated work, An Interior with a Young Violinist in Edinburgh (fig 1). In bothpaintings, Dou creates an effective balance between a single figure in an interior
space and copious still-life elements surrounding him. Many of the objects on the

Fig 2. X-radiograph of Gerrit Dou,
Scholar Interrupted at His Writing,
GD-102

table and shelves in Scholar Interrupted, particularly the terrestrial globe and the bookwith the metal clasp, reappear in Dou’s other paintings from this period. His muted
palette, dominated by browns, grays, and tawny yellows for the highlights, is also seen
in other works from this period such as his Self-Portrait in Cheltenham and Portrait ofa Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap in the present collection (GD-116).
Martin identified the model for the scholar as Douwe Janszoon, the artist’s
father.[2] Dou’s father, however, would have been about fifty years old in 1635, andthe scholar in this painting appears significantly older than that.[3] The bearded old
man wears a tabbaard, a traditional housecoat commonly worn in the seventeenth
century by lawyers, scholars, and ecclesiastics. His black skullcap probably indicatesthat Dou intended him as a religious scholar.[4] Although the book on the table isFig 3. Attributed to Gerrit Dou, Artist© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Scholar Interrupted at His Writing
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visibly open to page 61 and contains chapter heads set off in the margins, its precise
contents are illegible. The handwriting of the scholar’s letter is similarly blurred, yet

in His Studio, ca. 1630–32, oil on
panel, 59 x 43.5 inches, private
collection, United Kingdom

Dou took great measures to distinguish the textual character of the book and letter byvarying his brushwork.
An X-radiograph of the Scholar Interrupted reveals that the composition evolved
during the painting process (fig 2). In the upper right quadrant, Dou originallyplanned for an artist’s easel similar to those that appear in his paintings from the late1620s and early 1630s.[5] This earlier configuration is seen in such works as Artist in
His Studio (fig 3) and Man Writing by an Easel (fig 4), which point to the concept ofthe learned artist or the parallel between the artist and the scholar.[6] When he painted
over the easel in the present work, he added a shelf with various small jars and books
and included a Japanese parasol leaning against the wall. While the compositional
reworking does not appear to be unusual for Dou, the change signifies a developmentin the fine-tuning of the iconography.[7]Fig 4. Gerrit Dou, Man Writing by an
Easel, ca. 1631–32, oil on panel, 31.5
x 25 inches, private collection

The pictorial tradition of the scholar in his study was especially popular in Leiden
among Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and his followers in the decade between about
1625 and 1635.[8] Given that the city was an important center of scholastic learning,
the seat of one of the oldest universities in Europe, and the site of a prominent schoolof theology, the painting’s subject matter and themes would have been familiar to the
local intellectual elite. Though the painting possesses the character of a genre scene
painted from life, the nature of the scholar’s contemplative work is evoked in the

Fig 5. Detail of shelf with glass andmetal jars, Gerrit Dou, Scholar
Interrupted at His Writing, GD-102

various symbolic references associated with the still-life objects. The books andterrestrial globe may be understood as attributes of the scholar’s wisdom andknowledge, while the hourglass and skull were well-established vanitas symbols thatrefer to the passing of time and the fleeting nature of existence. One can assume thatthe scholar himself is examining questions about the transience of life in his own
writings, and that he remains mindful that the wisdom and knowledge passed along
through books will long outlive him. As a clever parallel, Dou references the theme ofart surpassing the artist’s short life by inserting his signature, “GDou,” on a tatteredpiece of paper on the side of the book, adjacent to the skull.[9]The precise meanings of the objects on the shelf—particularly the closed Japaneseparasol, the empty birdcage, and the gourd hanging from the staircase—are moredifficult to establish.[10] The parasol frequently appears in Dou’s later paintings,
whether in his self-portraits above his easel or as an attribute of a quack performing
before gullible listeners.[11] In both contexts, the open parasol appears to signify theFig 6. Nicolas Joseph Voyez(1742–1806), after Gerrit Dou, Levieillard en réfléxion, ca. 1757–73,
engraving, 355 x 275 mm, British
Museum, London, © Trustees of the
British Museum

working of illusion through deception.[12] Another intriguing detail is the barely
visible metal container on the shelf nestled between two jars above the globe, on
which Dou has written the letters “[…]ALVES” (fig 5).[13] This ambiguous reference© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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may, in fact, allude to salves and identify its contents as ointments, an indication of
the practice, often associated with quacks, of using herbal remedies in the treatmentof physical ailments.[14] It is difficult to pinpoint the precise meaning of theseelements and in what manner Dou intended for them to relate, if at all, to the scholar’s
work of contemplation and writing.
Three known much later versions and an engraving from around 1760 by Nicolas
Joseph Voyez (fig 6) correspond compositionally to the Scholar Interrupted, yet thepainted versions may have been modeled after another now lost variant. They all
differ from the present work in their arched-top rather than oval format, and only the
Voyez print includes the scarf draped over the table edge and reflects the precise
position of the pen case on the table as it appears in Scholar Interrupted.[15] The lightly
colored ground of the present work, visible along the entire circumference of thepanel’s edge, rules out any possibility that the format was modified.
The year Dou executed the present work also marks the beginning of the patronage ofthe artist by the Delft merchant-turned-statesman Pieter Spiering. Dou’s earlybiographer Joachim van Sandrart recounts that Spiering offered Dou a lucrative
retainer fee in exchange for the right of first refusal of his works.[16] It is unclear how
long this agreement lasted, but Spiering must have amassed a superb collection ofpaintings directly from the artist over the years, including the present Scholar
Interrupted. The painting is listed in a document dated 1652 involving a group of ten
panels that Spiering had sent to Queen Christina of Sweden for sale by approval,sometime in the late 1640s.[17] Even though Queen Christina did not purchase Scholar
Interrupted, Spiering’s positive assessment has been shared by later collectors, mostnotably Charles Morrison, who acquired this small masterpiece around 1854. The
painting remained in the Morrison family at Sudeley Castle until it was sold in 2007,
at which time it was acquired by the present collector.

- Dominique Surh, 2017

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Endnotes
1. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD. diss. New York University, 1990), no.
14; Ronni Baer, “Man Interrupted at His Writing,” in Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Ageof Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (Washington D.C., 2000), 70–71, no. 4.
2. Wilhelm Martin, “Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schilderslevenvan zijn tijd,” (PhD diss. Universiteit Leiden, 1901), no. 57.
3. The author would like to thank Piet Bakker (letter to the author, June 2012, curatorial files, The Leiden
Collection) for providing the following reference to a notarial document in Leiden in 1627 that Dou’s
father, Douwe Janszoon, was mentioned as being approximately forty-five years old, making him
approximately fifty-three in 1635. See reference Regional Archive Leiden, Notarial Archive, notary J. J.
Verwey, no. 106, act 121, 16 October 1627.
4. Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam,
2006), 27ff, 40.
5. Richard W. Hunnewell, “Gerrit Dou’s Self-Portraits and Depictions of the Artist” (Ph.D. diss. Boston
University, 1983).
6. Both paintings are illustrated 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), 64–65, no. 1; 68–69, no. 3.
7. Within the present collection, five other paintings by the artist underwent significant compositionalchanges during the painting process, including: Cat Crouching on the Ledge of an Artist’s
Atelier (GD-108); Landscape with a Goat (GD-114); Scholar Sharpening a Quill (GD-104); Portrait of a
Lady with a Music Book on her Lap (GD-116); and Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking
Stick (GD-113).
8. Henri van de Waal, “Rembrandt’s ‘Faust’ Etching: A Socinian Document and the Iconography of theInspired Scholar,” in Steps Toward Rembrandt, ed. Rudolf Herman Fuchs (Amsterdam, 1974), 133–81(originally published in Oud Holland 79 (1964): 6–48.
9. Baer mentions the possible influence of Rembrandt’s portraits from the early 1630s in which his placed
his signature in a letter or paper held by the subject. See 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), 70–71, no.
4, n. 4, 136.
10. While the bird and birdcage sometimes carry an erotic meaning in Dutch painting, it is unclear whether
Dou intended the empty birdcage hanging from the column to carry any pointed commentary. Given thereligious dress of the scholar and the absence of a bird, Dou may have hinted at a religious vow of© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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chastity. On the symbolism of birds, see Eddy de Jongh, “A Bird’s-Eye View of Erotica: Double
Entendre in a Series of Seventeenth-Century Genre Scenes,” in Questions of Meaning: Theme and Motifin Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting, ed. and trans. Michael Hoyle (Leiden, 2000), 22–58. Originallypublished as “Erotica in vogelperspectief: De dubbelzinnigheid van een reeks zeventiende-eeuwse
genrevoorstellingen,” Simiolus 3 (1968–69).
11. A Japanese parasol appears open above an easel in Dou’s Self-Portrait of 1645 in a private collection in
Spain; Self-Portrait of 1647 in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister; the Quack of 1652 inRotterdam; and Self-Portrait from ca. 1665 in the Van Otterloo Collection.
12. The parasol as a symbol of the quack doctor and the painter’s dependence on deception was noted by
Ivan Gaskell, “Gerrit Dou: His Patrons and the Art of Painting,” Oxford Art Journal 5, no. 1 (1982): 20.
See also Jan A. Emmens, “De kwakzalver van Gerard Dou,” Openbaar Kunstbezit 15 (1971): 4.
13. Click here for the online version of the Middelnederlandsch Woodenboek and the Dutch word salve (pl.
salven). The word shown in the painting seems to refer to the English plural.
14. Willem Moreelse’s Portrait of a Scholar from 1647 (Toledo Museum of Art, acc. no. 62.70) portrays ascholar holding a botanical print of two herbs, the euphorbium and butterbur, which Laurinda Dixon has
identified with the treatment of sluggishness and melancholia among scholars. See Laurinda S. Dixon,“Privileged Piety: Melancholia and the Herbal Tradition,” JHNA 1, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 1–29,
https://doi.org/10.5092/jhna.2009.1.2.1. Quacks were associated with the selling of medicinal
ointments, potions, and salves, as illustrated by a drawing by Lenaert Bramer, Kwakzalver, from about
1659 in the Prentenkabinet in Leiden, in which a male figure is shown holding up a jar for sale.
15. For the details and whereabouts of the three versions, see the Versions section. The arched-top formatof the Voyez print may have been added by the engraver, who otherwise repeated all of the details
visible in the present work.
16. While Sandrart speaks of a commission arrangement of 1,000 gulden, both Angel and Houbraken
mention 500 gulden; see Bakker’s biography of Dou.
17. Martin identified number 5 in the 1652 document with the painting formerly in the Marquess of Bute
collection, Old Man with Pen in Hand, which does not contain a globe and hourglass, yet Baer suggested
that the present work more likely fits the description. See Wilhelm Martin, Het leven en de werken van
Gerrit Dou (Leiden, 1901), 45, no. 58; reproduced in Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters
Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), no. 61; Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit
Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), nos. 14 and 15; 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), 70–71, no. 4. The 1652 document sheds light both on Spiering’s collection of paintings by theartist and his aspirations to resell them. Dou’s paintings do not seem to have appealed to the queen’s
taste, and they were returned to Spiering soon thereafter. See Per Bjurstrom, Queen Christina of Sweden:
A Personality in European Civilization (Exh. cat. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) (Stockholm, 1966), 426,
no. 1028.
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ProvenancePieter Spiering, The Hague; sent to Queen Christina of Sweden (1626–89) for approval probably late1640s; returned to Spiering by 1652.
Baron Nagel Collection, London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 21 March 1795, no. 48 [for £120.15]).
Richard Creed Collection (his sale, Christie’s, London, 15 May 1813, no. 9 [to Philip Hill for £131.50;
John Smith, London, to Philippe Panné for 250 guineas]).
Edward Gray, London, by 1829.
(Possibly sale, Edward Foster, London, 15 June 1835, no. 130; possible sale, Christie’s, London, 4 June
1836, no. 7 [to Larken for £2.12]; possible sale, Christie’s, London, 4 May 1839, no. 117, unsold at £3;
possible sale, Christie’s, London, 18 January 1840, no. 25 [to Money for £2.10]).
Charles Morrison Collection, London, by 1854; by descent to Mrs. Morrison, 1879; by descent to
Sudeley Castle Trustees, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, Walter Morrison Collection; [Johnny van
Haeften, London, 2007].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
London, Royal Academy of Arts, “Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of
the British School: Winter Exhibition, Tenth Year,” 1879, no. 113 [lent by Mrs. Morrison].
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Gerrit Dou, 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age of
Rembrandt,” 16 April–6 August 2000; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 6 September–19 November
2000; The Hague, Mauritshuis, 9 December 2000–25 February 2001, no. 4 [lent by the Trustees ofSudeley Castle].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, December 2009–January 2011, on loan with the permanentcollection [lent by the present owner].
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in the Age ofVermeer,” 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. 13 [lent by the present owner].
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, April 2013–February 2014 [lentby the present owner].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9 March–31
August 2014 [lent by the present owner].
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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 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 [lent by the present
owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof 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 the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].

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Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 1:29, no. 87.
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including Historical and Critical Notices of the Schools of Italy, Spain, France,
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113.
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Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou. Translated by Clara Bell. London, 1902, 111, no. 43.
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dix-septième siècle. Paris, 1911, 166, no. 20.
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Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” JHNA 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 1, 3, 4, 6-10, 14-16,
18, 20, 23-24, 30, figs. 2a, 2b, 16, 17a, 17b, 25, 35, 36a, 36b, 37, 38a, 38b, 39a, 39b, 52, 53a, 52b, 54,
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Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 57, fig. 17. Exh. cat. Paris Musée du Louvre;
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cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery ofArt. New Haven and London, 2017.
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Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 10;14, no. 26. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
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and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 18, fig. 2, 23; 28, 32.
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Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
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catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
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Moqtaderi, Heather. “Introduction: Pulling Back the Curtain.” In An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 16. Exh. cat.
Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 2021.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Embracing an Inner World in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting.” In
An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara
Yeager-Crasselt, 25–26, fig. 2.4. Exh. cat. Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University ofPennsylvania. Philadelphia, 2021.

Versions
Engraved
1. Nicolas Joseph Voyez (1742–1806), after Gerrit Dou, La vieillard en réfléxion, ca. 1757–73, engraving,
355 x 275 mm, British Museum, London.

Versions and Copies
1. Copy after Gerrit Dou, An Alchemist in His Laboratory, oil on panel, unknown dimensions, Chemical
Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia.

2. Copy after Gerrit Dou, Man Interrupted at His Writing, oil on canvas, 16 x 13.5 cm, Collection Anthony
Langalante, Pennsylvania.

3. Copy after Gerrit Dou, Scholar Interrupted at His Study, oil on panel, 33 x 26.7 cm, National Gallery ofSouth Australia, Adelaide.

Technical Summary
The support for this small oval painting is a vertically grained oak panel made from a single plank. The woodis from the Baltic region and has a fell date of 1600.[1] The panel retains its original bevel around the outeredge of the reverse. The bevel angle is slightly shallower along the left edge. The panel has a slight convex
warp when viewed from the front.
The panel was prepared with a light-colored, thinly and evenly applied ground. The ground is visible along
the entire perimeter of the face painting, but it does not extend over the edges. The presence of the groundaround the entire circumference of the front of the painting and the presence of the bevel on the entire
circumference of the reverse indicate that the painting retains its original dimensions.
The X-radiograph shows several changes. In the upper right quadrant there is currently a shelf with various© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Scholar Interrupted at His Writing
Page 13 of 13

objects on it under a spiral staircase, but the original composition appears to have had a painting on an easel
in this area. In addition, the birdcage, hourglass, and the slip of paper extending from the book are not visible
in the X-radiograph, indicating they were later additions. Infrared reflectography shows a dark curved shapeextending across the table, through the edge of the book and the brow of the skull.[2]The paint was applied thinly and smoothly with slight impasto in the objects on the table, except for thehourglass. Both highlights and shadows were painted over the midtones. The hourglass and the slip of paper
extending from the book with the artist’s signature on it were painted wet-over-dry, further indicating thatthey were added later. The pigment vivianite was used in the scarf. This pigment changes from blue toyellow, therefore there may have been more of a color contrast between the scarf and the tablecloth
originally.[3] Coarse pigments in a fairly thick paint were used to create the text of the book, which is incontrast to the dilute paint with fine particles used for the handwritten page in this painting and for the booktext in Scholar Sharpening his Quill (GD-104).[4]There is a fair amount of traction crackle throughout the painting, but it is especially heavy in the lower
portion of the tablecloth. There is also abrasion in the scholar’s cloak and around the perimeter. The painting
was treated in 2007.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Dendochronology report by Ian Tyers, November 2012. Tyers reports that the board’s narrow size
indicates it has probably been trimmed, which precludes the conjecture of an earliest probable usage
date.
2. Infrared reflectography was performed by Shawn Digney-Peer at unknown specifications.
3. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 15 April 2011.
4. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 15 April 2011, and scientific examination report of Scholar
Sharpening his Quill, 10 January 2013.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection