Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk

ca. 1662–64

Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)oil on panel
39.4 x 33.5 cm
signed in dark paint, upper left corner:“G.Metsu”
GM-110Currently on view at: The National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. "Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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A lady in a black fur-trimmed jacket and brownish skirt has paused from

Comparative Figures

her letter to look at the viewer in a friendly fashion, with a slight smilecrossing her face. Poised to resume writing as soon as the interruption has
passed, she sits with her right hand holding her quill pen above an inkwell
resting on the tapestry-covered table before her. Adding to the momentarycharacter of the scene is the inquisitive small brown and white dog by the
woman’s side, who peers toward the table while balancing expectantly on
one paw. Although the content of the letter is unknown, it is undoubtedly
amorous in nature, as is the case with virtually all Dutch seventeenthcentury high-life genre scenes of letter writers. Images of ships at sea
appear with some frequency in the background of such works, evoking the
traditional notion that love is as changeable as the sea.[1] A calm sea, as
evident in this seascape, was considered a good omen for the relationshipbetween two lovers.

Fig 1. Gabriel Metsu, Man Writinga Letter, ca. 1664–66, oil on
panel, 52.5 x 40.2 cm, National
Gallery of Ireland, NGI.4536

Together with Metsu’s celebrated companion pieces Man Writing a
Letter and Woman Reading a Letter in the National Gallery of Ireland,
Dublin ((fig 1) and (fig 2)), Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk from1662–64 is one of the artist’s most mature depictions of elegant individuals
engaged in amorous correspondence.[2] Metsu was undoubtedly inspired
to paint scenes of letter writers by Gerard ter Borch (1617–81), whose
images of men and women writing, reading, receiving and sealing letters
also prompted other artists, including Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84),
Frans van Mieris (1635–81), and Johannes Vermeer (1632–75), to focus
on this type of subject matter.[3] The most influential of Ter Borch’s letter
writing scenes was A Woman Writing a Letter of ca. 1655–56 (fig 3),
although how the artist’s contemporaries would have known this painting

Fig 2. Gabriel Metsu, Woman
Reading a Letter, ca. 1664–66, oil
on panel, 52.5 x 40.2 cm, National
Gallery of Ireland, NGI.4537

is uncertain.[4] Metsu certainly had seen it by 1657–59, when he paintedA
Woman Drawing (fig 4). In this work, he followed Ter Borch’s concept of apensive female figure working at a table, but changed the subject to a
drawing after a statue instead of a woman writing a letter.
In the present painting, Metsu presented the letter writer as a striking
beauty smiling seductively at the spectator, a shift of focus that reflects theartist’s customary manner of adapting Ter Borch’s compositions in the1660s. Metsu frequently appropriated Ter Borch’s subjects and figuregroups, but loosened the social and emotional corset of that master’s
elegant ladies and gentlemen. Metsu repeatedly depicted womeninteracting with and inviting the viewer to take part in courting rituals.

Fig 3. Gerard ter Borch, A
Woman Writing a Letter, ca.
1655–56, oil on panel, 39 x 29.5
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Likewise, he generally placed his figures in more fancifully conceived,

cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, 797

opulent interiors than did Ter Borch. Here, he placed the letter writer infront of a white and red marble mantelpiece comprising Corinthiancolumns and an elaborately carved frieze, which is based on achimneypiece in the Burgomasters’ Council Chamber of the Amsterdam
Town Hall.[5] This building, designed by Jacob van Campen (1596–1657),
was so splendid that the Dutch considered it to be the Eighth Wonder ofthe World.[6] This visual reference to an architectural element in thisgrandiose building communicated to the viewer that the woman belonged
to the highest echelons of Dutch society, an evocation of luxury that would
have appealed strongly to Metsu’s wealthy Amsterdam clientele.
Many of Metsu’s genre scenes painted during the last few years of his life
depict women whose facial features are based in various degrees on thoseof his wife, Isabella de Wolff. Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk , however,Fig 4. Gabriel Metsu, A Woman
Drawing, 1657–59, oil on panel,
36.3 x 30.7 cm, Presented by the
1st Viscount Rothermere, 1940,
The National Gallery, London, NG
5225, © National Gallery, London/ Art Resource, NY

is an exception. The woman’s pronounced eyelids and broad nose bridge
are not those of the artist’s spouse. Her features are so distinctive that it isprobable that the painting is a portrait of a woman posing as a letter writer;
the ring on her finger may indicate that she is married. As such, thepainting is similar to a portrait Metsu completed during the last year of hislife that has a similar genre-like character: Portrait of Lucia Wijbrants(?),
probably commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Jan Jacobsz Hinlopen.[7]About two to four years after Metsu completed Elegant Lady Writing at
Her Desk, Vermeer also painted an attractive letter-writing woman smiling
subtly at the viewer (fig 5). Although the works differ in many respects, thepaintings share the portrait-like character of the women, who differ fromthe other figure types in the rest of the artists’ oeuvres. It remains
undetermined whether these similarities are the result of the two artists

Fig 5. Johannes Vermeer, A Lady
Writing, ca. 1665, oil on canvas,
45 x 39.9 cm, National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Gift of Harry
Waldron Havemeyer and Horace
Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of
their father, Horace Havemeyer,
1962.10.1

independently transforming Ter Borch’s image in the same way, or
whether the Delft painter knew Metsu’s painting, which was probably partof a collection in Amsterdam.[8]-Adriaan Waiboer© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. See, for instance, Eddy de Jongh, ed., Tot Lering en Vermaak: Betekenissen van Hollandse
genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)(Amsterdam, 1976), 121, who cites a poem by Jan Hermansz Krul: “Wel te recht mach
Liefde by de Zee vergeleecken werden / aenghesien haer veranderinge / die d’eene uyr
hoop / d’ander uyr vreese doet veroorsaecken: even gaet het met een Minnaer / als het een
Schipper doet / de welcke sich op Zee beghevende / d’eene dagh goedt we’er/d’ander daghstorm en bulderende wint gewaer wort” (Love may rightly be compared with the sea / fromthe viewpoint of her changes / which one hour causes hope / the next fear: so too goes it witha lover / who like a skipper / who journeys to the sea / one day encounters good weather /the next storm and roaring winds). Jan Harmenszoon Krul, Minne-beelden: Toe-gepast delievende ionckheyt (Amsterdam, 1640), 2–3; translation taken from Peter C. Sutton, “Love
Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer,” in Love Letters: Dutch Genre
Paintings in the Age of Vermeer , ed. Peter C. Sutton (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of
Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences) (New Haven, 2003), 45.
2. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 255–58, nos A-166, A-177, both ill. Metsu painted no fewer than nine such
scenes, the earliest of which dates from around 1657–59.
3. Peter C. Sutton in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer , ed. Peter C.
Sutton (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum ofArts and Sciences) (New Haven, 2003), 92. For Netscher’s painting, see Marjorie
Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk,
2002), 57–58, 181, no. 23, color pl. 5; for Van Mieris’s paintings, see Otto Naumann,Frans
van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:95–96, nos. 82, 83, ill.
4. They may have seen it at the home of the Rotterdam architect and painter Jacob Lois (ca.
1620–76), whose posthumous inventory included a painting described as “a writing woman
by Ter Borch” (“Een Schryvent vroutgen van Ter Borch”). Abraham Bredius, KünstlerInventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVI., XVII. und XVIII.
Jahrhunderts, 8 vols. (The Hague, 1915–22), 4:589; Sturla Gudlaugsson, Gerard ter Borch,
2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:126. The same or another painting, described as “Eenbrieveschrijfstertje gedaan na ‘t schijnt door Gerard ter Burg“ (A woman writing a letter, as it
appears, by Gerard ter Burg), was in the collection of Albert Houting, a secretary of the
Dutch East India Company, at the moment when his estate was drawn up in Amsterdam, in
April 1704 (Getty Provenance Index, Archival Inventory N-451 [Houting], no. 24).
5. Peter C. Sutton in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer , ed. Peter C.
Sutton (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum ofArts and Sciences) (New Haven, 2003), 134; see also Adriaan E. Waiboer,Gabriel Metsu,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk
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Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 73.
6. Eymert-Jan Goossens, Schat van beitel en penseel: Het Amsterdamse stadhuis uit deGouden Eeuw (Amsterdam and Zwolle, 1996), 11.
7. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 95, 142, 230, no. A-87, ill.; 271–72, no. A-132, ill.; Irene Groeneweg,“Regenten in het zwart: vroom en deftig?” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 46 (1995):
201–4; Sturla Gudlaugsson, “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu,” Oud-Holland
83 (1968): 26 n. 32, 35.
8. For more on Vermeer’s painting, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Dutch Paintings of theSeventeenth Century: The Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Systematic Catalogue(New York and Oxford, 1995), 377–82, ill.

Provenance
Dr. Van Cleef (d. 1861), Utrecht (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 4–5 April 1864, no. 59 [for5,020 francs]).
Marquis Da Fosse, Lisbon, Portugal.
Charles T. Yerkes (1837–1905), New York, by 1893 (his sale, American Art Association,
Mendelssohn Hall, New York, 5–8 April 1910, no. 98 [for $17,200 to Kleinberger Galleries,
Paris and New York]).
Oscar Huldschinsky (1846–1931), Berlin.
James Simon (1851–1932), Berlin, by 1914.
[Haberstock, Berlin, by 1924].
Leo van den Bergh, Berlin (his sale, Mak van Waay, Graupe, Amsterdam, 5–6 November
1935, no. 13 [for 14,000 florins to Van Raalte]).
Arthur Hartog (1892–1986), Wassenaar, by 1935; removed from his house by the Nazi
occupation authorities in December 1941 (sale, 16 January 1942 [to Adolf Hitler for his
Gemäldegalerie Linz, no. 2167]); recorded at the Munich Central Collecting Point, 15 July
1945, no. 4315; restituted to the Stichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit, 9 October 1945;
returned to Arthur Hartog, March 1948, London, New York, by 1952; by descent to private
collection, New York (sale, Christie’s, New York, 27 January 2000, no. 76 [to private
collection]).
Private collection, Darien, Conn., 2000 [Otto Naumann, Ltd., 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Künste, “Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem
Privatbezitz der Mitglieder des Kaiser Friedrich Museum-Vereins,” May 1914, no. 103 [lentby James Simon].
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, “Oude Kunst uit Haagsch bezit,” 12 December 1936–31
January 1937, no. 63 [lent by Arthur Hartog].
The Hague, Mauritshuis, “Herwonnen kunstbezit: Tentoonstelling van uit Duitschland
teruggekeerde nederlandsche kunstschatten,” March–May 1946, no. 35 [lent by Stichting
Nederlandsch Kunstbezit].
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, “Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age ofVermeer,” 1 October–31 December 2003; Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum of Art andScience, 31 January–2 May 2004, no. 15 [lent by Mr. Robert McKeon].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Gabriel Metsu: The Love Letter,” 15 May–29 August
2004 [no number, lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, March
2009–31 July 2010 [lent by the present owner].
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, “Gabriel Metsu,” 4 September–5 December 2010;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 16 December 2010–21 March 2011; Washington D.C., National
Gallery of Art, 10 April–24 July 2011, no. 36 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August
2011–September 2012 [lent by the present owner].
Rome, Scuderie Del Quirinale, “Joannes Vermeer and the Golden Age of Dutch Art,” 26
September 2012–20 January 2013 [lent by the present owner].
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, January
2013–November 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre / Vermeer and theMasters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry,” 20 February–22 May 2017; Dublin,
National Gallery of Ireland, 17 June–17 September 2017; Washington, National Gallery ofArt, 22 October–21 January 2018 [lent by the present owner].

References© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Catalogue from Collection of Charles T. Yerkes, Chicago, U.S.A. Chicago, 1893, no. 30.
Stephens, F. G. “Mr. Yerkes’ Collection at Chicago: The Old Masters, II.” Magazine of Art(March, 1895): 143, 147.
Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of Charles T. Yerkes Esq . 2 vols.
New York, 1904, 1: no. 60.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelius. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:275–76, no. 76a. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts .
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbezitz der Mitglieder des KaiserFriedrich Museum-Vereins. Exh. cat. Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Künste. Berlin, 1914,
30, no. 103.
Oude Kunst uit Haagsch bezit. Exh. cat. The Hague, Gemeentemuseum. The Hague, 1936,
34, no. 120.
Herwonnen kunstbezit: Tentoonstelling van uit Duitschland teruggekeerde nederlandsche
kunstschatten. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1946, no. 35.
Robinson, Franklin W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre
Painting of the Golden Age. New York, 1974, 85 n. 103.
Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs etgraveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistesfrançais et étrangers. 10 vols. Paris, 1976. Revised edition by Jacques Busse. Paris, 1999,
9:537.
Ydema, Onno. Carpets and Their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings 1540–1700 . Zutphen,
1991, 164–65, no. 518.
Sutton, Peter, ed. 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, 133–35, no. 20.
Schwarz, Birgit. Hitlers Museum: Die fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz—Dokumente zum“Führermuseum.” Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2004, 325.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work.” Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 2007, 1:210–11 n. 4, 730–31, no. A-120, 4:1169.
Franits, Wayne F. “Gabriel Metsu and the Art of Luxury.” In Gabriel Metsu. Edited byAdriaan E. Waiboer. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum;Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010, 58–60, fig. 43.
Waiboer, Adriaan E., ed. Gabriel Metsu. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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195, no. 40.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné.

New Havenand London, 2012, 111, 250, no. A-108.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Donna che scrive una lettera.” In Johannes Vermeer: Il secolo d’oro
dell’arte olandese, Edited by Sandrina Bandera, Walter Liedtke, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr,
158–59, no. 27. Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale. Rome, 2012.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. J. Rombouts, watercolor. L. Dupper Wz., Dordrecht (his sale, Roos…Engelberts,
Dordrecht, 28–29 June 1870, no. 283, as J. Rombouts after G. Metzu).

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak, has 1.5 cm–wide oak additions
on all four sides. A photograph of the painting dated 1895 shows the enlarged panel andcomposition, which indicates the restoration took place prior to that date.[1] Narrow wood shims
have been applied to all four sides, and the enlarged panel has been marouflaged to a radiallycut oak plank and cradled. Three paper labels are affixed to the cradle members and a red wax
seal is located on the marouflage panel between the cradle members, but there are no importstamps, panel maker’s marks or machine toolmarks.
A creamy brown-colored, thinly and evenly applied ground remains visible along the outer
contours of the figure and acts as a mid-tone in the composition. The paint has been applied inthin layers over opaque layers along the gray and light brown shadows of the white head
covering, the flesh tones, the subtle changes of tone in the skirt, the black ribbons of the jacket,
and the decoration of the oriental carpet. Small details such as the red in the corner of the
figure’s eyes and the minute dots of yellow and white suggest light reflecting off the figure’s
jewelry, the dog’s pearl collar and blue ribbon, the ornamentation on the upper part of thefireplace, and the lid of the inkwell. The texture of the white fur trim of the figure’s jacket and the
dog has been achieved with a thicker application of underlying paint.
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The figure’s position within the composition, the quill in her hand, her earrings and garments, thecarpeted table, and the dog are found to have been painted in reserve, which indicates they were
carefully planned. In contrast, the mantelpiece, chair, and painting in the background do notappear to have been included in the initial design. Both the chair and the framed seascapepainting were added after the brown wash of the background was painted. The yellow highlights
found in the frame of the painting in the background extend, wet-on-dry, onto the white satin veilof the sitter and onto the dark brown of the chair, showing us that these highlights were painted
at a later time when the underlying paint was dry.
A graphite underdrawing is revealed in infrared images captured at 900–1700 nanometers along
the carpet design and the contour lines of the figure and dog. The images also reveal minor
compositional changes to the position of the dog’s proper right leg and the third finger of the
figure’s proper left hand.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the upper left corner but is undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2004 and remains in a good state of preservation.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. According to a 2012 examination report by Devi Ormond, associate paintings conservator,
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the photograph was provided by the Leiden Collection.
2. Entry based on 2012 examination report by Devi Ormond, associate paintings
conservator, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection