Scholar in His Study
Godfrey Kneller(Lübeck 1646 – 1723 London)ca. 1668
oil on canvas
105 x 86 cm
GK-100© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Scholar in His Study” (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/ (archivedDecember 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.

Sitting beside an open window with a warm light filling his darkened study, an elderly

Comparative Figuresscholar wearing a dark blue velvet beret and an amber fur-trimmed tabbaard, thetraditional dress of a scholar, quietly concentrates on sharpening his quill.[1] His deepset eyes are cast downward as his fingers nimbly guide the knife’s blade across the tipof the pen. The open book lying before him suggests that that he will soon resumewriting, possibly about worldly matters since a large terrestrial globe stands on thetable to his left. Behind him, a thick brown curtain has been swept over thewindowpane, its heavy folds rendered in broad, sweeping brushstrokes.
The pictorial character of Scholar in His Study reflects the influence of Ferdinand Bol(1616–80), with whom the German-born Godfrey Kneller apprenticed in Amsterdam
in the mid-1660s.[2] Bol represented a scholar in his study several times in the 1640sand 1650s, as in the Leiden Collection’s Man with a Book, 1644 (FB-100), and Old
Man with a Globe, ca. 1650, in the Hermitage (fig 1).[3] Bol’s intimate compositions,Fig 1. Ferdinand Bol, Old Man with aGlobe, ca. 1650, oil on canvas, 122 x
98 cm, The State Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg

delicate rendering of the details of the scholars’ dress and attributes, and his subtle useof chiaroscuro provided Kneller with a compositional and stylistic models. Kneller
likewise took great care in rendering the various textures of fabric and the way thatlight falls over its surfaces, evident, for example, in the highlights that reveal thesoftness of the velvet beret. Kneller’s tightly cropped composition and the frontal
pose of the scholar contribute to the painting’s immediacy, as does his assured,vibrant brushwork.
The theme of a scholar sharpening his quill was introduced to Dutch art in Leiden by
Gerrit Dou (1613–75) in the late 1620s.[4] Dou’s pupil Frans van Mieris (1635–81)
depicted the subject in the early 1650s (fig 2), a painting that Kneller may have
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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known from his student years in Leiden.[5] Much as with Kneller’s scholar, Van
Mieris’s bearded, elderly scholar sharpens his quill with great concentration andpatience. He is situated within a stone niche and is seated before a table with a large,
open book and a globe. A curtain has been pulled aside to reveal the scene, evoking asense of intimacy that Kneller has similarly conveyed. The theme of the quill cutter
served as an emblem of diligent practice, forming, together with education andnatural talent, the ideal components of a scholar’s—or artist’s—training.[6] The
diligence with which the scholar performs his task makes him a model of scholarly
virtue.[7]Early in his career Kneller portrayed the theme of a scholar in his study on a numberof occasions.[8] In the Bader collection’s A Scholar in an Interior, ca. 1668, hesimilarly depicted the elderly scholar seated in the foreground of his image.[9] Kneller
also represented the scholar in his study in paintings in Lübeck and Paris (fig 3).[10] Inthe Louvre painting the scholar looks thoughtfully into the distance, his gaze passing

Fig 2. Frans van Mieris, Old Man
Sharpening His Pen, ca. 1650–55, oilon panel, 34.5 x 24.5 cm, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie
Alte Meister, Dresden, inv. 1748

by a table filled with books, a globe, a musical instrument, armor, a skull and acandle. This work differs from Scholar in His Study in the complexity of its
composition and in its vanitas connotations. The relative simplicity of thecomposition of the Leiden Collection painting suggests that this charmingly
atmospheric work was among the first of Kneller’s portrayals of scholars that he madein the late 1660s.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2017

Fig 3. Godfrey Kneller, Old Man
Meditating: Lesson in Vanity, ca. 1668,oil on canvas, 145 x 137 cm, Musée duLouvre, Paris, inv. 1061, photo: JeanGilles Berizzi, © RMN-Grand Palais /Art Resource, NY© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Scholar in His Study
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1. For a discussion of the tabbaard in the scholarly tradition, see the essays for FB-100 and FB-107, as wellas Marieke de Winkel, “‘Eene der deftigsten dragten’: The Iconography of the Tabbaard and the Senseof Tradition in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Portraiture,” Beeld en Zelfbeeld in de Nederlandse Kunst
1550–1750, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 46 (1995): 146–66.
2. See the biography of Kneller in this catalogue. Albert Blankert has argued that Bol must have urged
Kneller to paint images of a scholar in his study as part of his training. By the 1660s these images wereold-fashioned, but they must have provided a suitable model for Kneller, who turned to the depiction ofthe scholar in his study on a number of occasions, as discussed below. Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol(1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), 22.
3. See Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), nos. 67, 69,and 70; and the essay for FB-100. For the Hermitage painting (Old Man with a Globe, ca. 1650, oil oncanvas, 122 x 98 cm, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), see the essay for FB-105, fig. 3.
Whereas Bol emphasized the scholars’ intellectual contemplation, Kneller chose to portray the figure inan active pose in this work.
4. Scholar Sharpening His Quill, ca. 1628–30, oil on panel, 25.5 x 20.5 cm; see the entry for GD-104.
5. For Van Mieris’s work, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 39, 44, 122; 2: 8–9, no. 2; Sabine Schulze ed., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei
von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt, 1993), 246–48, no. 56;
Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 72–75, nos. 1–2 (along with the drawing of the same
subject). Other examples include Adriaen van Ostade, Quill Cutter, oil on panel, 33.2 x 26.7 cm,
Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest; Adriaen van Ostade, The Quill Cutter, ca. 1645, oil on panel, 22.5 x
18.5 cm., Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe; Jan Lievens, Quill Cutter, ca. 1627, formerly Heinz Kisters
Collection, Kreuzlingen; Salomon Koninck, A Scholar Sharpening His Quill, oil on canvas, 57.2 x 46 cm,Christie’s, Amsterdam, May 6, 2008. See, respectively, Sabine Schulze et al., Leselust: NiederländischeMalerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt, 1993), 248, fig.
56.2; and Werner Sumowksi, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3:
1794, no. 1235.
For the theme of the scholar in his study, see Volker Manuth, Wisdom, Knowledge, and Magic: The
Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Exh. cat. Kingston, Canada, Agnes Etherington
Art Centre, Queen’s University) (Kingston, 1997), particularly nos. 16 and 17.
6. See Jan Emmens, “Natuur, onderwijzing en oeffening bij een drieluik van Gerrit Dou,” in Album
Discipulorum aangeboden aan Prof. de Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn zestigste verjaardag 27 februari
1963 (Utrecht, 1963), 125–36. Emmens based his ideas on Aristotle’s writings about education. Also see© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:122.
7. An alternative view, which suggests that the physical activity of sharpening the pen distracts the scholarfrom his intellectual pursuits, does not resonate with this work. For this interpretation, see Bettina
Werche in Sabine Schulze, ed. Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat.
Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt, 1993), 246–48.
8. In addition to the examples discussed in this essay, there are a number of other paintings of scholars
attributed to Kneller: A Scholar, Seated Three-Quarter Length at a Desk, late 1660s, oil on canvas, 106 x
89 cm, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 6 May 1998, no. 135; A Scholar in His Study with Books and a Globe, oilon canvas, 124 x 98 cm, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1999, no. 165; Mathematician or Astronomer
Studying, oil on canvas, 110.5 x 122.5 cm, Dorotheum, Vienna, 24 March 1999, no. 220; Portrait of aScholar, oil on canvas, 101 x 90.2 cm, Sotheby’s, New York, 25 May 2000, no. 207. See Werner
Sumowksi, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3: nos. 972, 2333a,and 974.
9. A Scholar in an Interior, ca. 1668, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 93.3 cm, Collection of Drs. Alfred and IsabelBader, Milwaukee. The scarf draped around the figure’s neck resembles a general type of Jewish prayer
shawl. Although not exactly identifiable, it has been suggested that the figure is a Jewish scholar. SeeVolker Manuth et al., Wisdom, Knowledge, and Magic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Art (Exh. cat. Kingston, Canada, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University) (Kingston,1997), no. 9; David de Witt, The Bader Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings (Kingston, 2008), no. 99.
The unusual frontal pose and tightly organized composition of Kneller’s work are also evident in Paulus
de Lesire’s The Quill Cutter (ca. 1628–29, oil on panel, 78.8 x 60 cm, Collection of Drs. Alfred andIsabel Bader, Milwaukee). Lesire’s figure is characterized by a sense of disorder, and other than a messy
pile of books and papers on the table the scene is devoid of scholarly attributes. See Bettina Werche inSabine Schulze ed., Leselust: Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt vis Vermeer (Exh. cat. Frankfur,
Schirn Kunsthalle) (Frankfurt, 1993), 248 n. 10; Manuth et al., Wisdom, Knowledge, and Magic, no. 17;
and De Witt, The Bader Collection, no. 107.
10. Scholar in His Study, 1668, oil on canvas, 133 x 173 cm, St. Annen Museum, Lübeck; Scholar in His
Study, 1668, oil on canvas, 132 x 174 cm, St. Annen Museum, Lübeck. Kneller’s Old Man Meditating in
the Louvre was attributed to Ferdinand Bol until Blankert identified it as being by Kneller in 1982. See
Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), 22.

Provenance(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1985, no. 64, as by Salomon Koninck).
[Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, 1991].
Anonymous private foundation.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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[Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc., New York, 2007].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Gouda, Stedelijke Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1999–2005 [lent by an anonymous
private foundation].

References
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94, 3: 1487, no.
974a, 1497.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of fine, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed, has been lined. Theupper edge has a sloped cut, and cusping is visible along the upper and lower edges. Various paper labels
have been adhered to the stretcher, but no wax collection seals, stencils or import stamps are located along
the lining or stretcher reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been smoothly and opaquely
applied with no use of impasto but with visible brushwork through the figure’s fingers and face and withglazes of brown paint to create the fur trim. Short beard hairs along the figure’s chin have been scratched into
the wet paint with the pointed end of a brush.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images. The images reveal minor compositional changes tothe edge of the rolled paper beneath the bookstand, along the upper edge of the globe and its vertical spine,
and a change in shape to the lower left side of the figure’s cap.
The painting is unsigned and undated but has two words inscribed in block letters in light and dark paintalong the globe.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. Entry based in part on a 2013 examination report by Simon Howell and Rachel Casey-Thomas of R. M.
S. Shephard Associates, Wimbledon, UK.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection