Portrait of aWalking StickGentleman

Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

withaca. 1645
oil on oval panel
49.2 x 39.7 cm
signed “GDov” (GD in ligatur) in dark paintalong right midpoint
GD-113© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking Stick
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How To Cite
Surh, Dominique and Henriette Rahusen. "Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking Stick." InThe Leiden
Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking Stick
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Gerrit Dou portrays this dignified man with a penetrating gaze and austere,

Comparative Figures

unsmiling expression, suggesting a stern and forthright individual. He isshown wearing a burgundy-plum woolen suit with a matching cloak draped
over his shoulder. An embroidered hanger crossing over his gorget holds arapier, visible near his hip, indicating his service as an officer in one of
Leiden’s two militia companies.[1] The military connotation of his attributes
correspond with Salomon Savery’s engraving “Standing Officer with
Walking Stick,” ca. 1630–35 (fig 1), from a series of prints illustrating
officers of rank. Indeed, the man’s stately pose in the present painting,with one hand on a cane and the other nonchalantly resting on his hipakimbo, recalls the pictorial conventions for depicting civic leaders andpolitical dignitaries. Yet rather than a life-size portrait in accordance withthose norms, the scale of Dou’s portrait is more intimate and recalls thesmall-scale portraits of Thomas de Keyser (1596–1667) that had become
the vogue in Amsterdam in the 1620s.
This three-quarter length portrait is a pendant to a painting now with theFig 1. Salomon Savery,“Standing Officer with Walking
Stick” nr. 3/10 from his series
Gewapende officieren en
soldaten, ca. 1630–35,
Rijksprentenkabinet, inv. nr. RP-POB-5531 Hollstein Dutch 64-2(2)Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, Portrait of a Woman, which depicts
an equally dignified lady dressed almost exclusively in black (fig 2). The
woman’s extended right arm, resting on a table next to a copy of theStatenbijbel and the family’s strongbox, mirrors the man’s pose.[2] The
complementary poses of the figures, analogous settings, and the similar
palette and dimensions of the oval panels leave little doubt that the two
portraits were painted as a pair. With this portrait and its pendant Dou
provides the perfect visual illustration of the two complimentary social
spheres: the male world of public and military affairs, and the private
female world of a well-run and pious household[3]. Although the identity of
the couple is unknown, they were most likely part of Leiden’ssocioeconomic elite in the early 1640s.[4]Fig 2. Gerrit Dou, Portrait of aLady, ca. 1635–40, oil on panel,
49.2 x 38.7 cm, The Norton
Simon Foundation, Pasadena,CA, inv. no. F.1969.43.PMarieke de Winkel has identified the man’s kastoor hat as a fashion
popular from 1644 to 1646, probably not much earlier or later, about thesame time Dou painted Portrait of a Man in the State Hermitage Museum,St. Petersburg (fig 3).[5] Both men wear the conical wide-brimmed hat
made of felted beaver hair that became fashionable with the opening up of
the North American fur trade in the early decades of the seventeenth
century.[6] The leather sword hangers with intricate tooled designs are also
identical and suggest that both men served in a militia company thatissued standardized weaponry.[7] Another clue supporting a date in the© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPortrait of a Gentleman with a Walking Stick
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mid-1640s is the similar, broad linen collar worn by a man in a securely
dated portrait of 1646, Dou’s Portrait of Johan Wittert van der Aa in theRijksmuseum.[8] Moreover, the asymmetrically draped curtains thattheatrically frame the figure within an arched surround is another feature
Dou frequently included in the backgrounds of many of his portraits fromthis period.[9]Infrared reflectography reveals that Dou initially sketched an elaboratearchitectural setting behind the man that included an arched doorway inthe center of the composition as well as a column and base at the far left
(fig 4).[10] It is unclear whether the pendant in Pasadena retains a similar
early sketch, for the painting has not undergone infrared examination as ofyet.[11] In the final composition, Dou separated the figure from thebackground with a gentle aureole of light, reinforcing the man’s dignity andcommanding presence.

Fig 3. Gerrit Dou, Portrait of aMan, ca. 1640–45, oil on panel,
9.8 x 15.7 cm, The State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, GE-891, image fromwww.hermitagemusum.org,
courtesy of The State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia- Dominique Surh and Henriette Rahusen

Fig 4. Infrared reflectogram ofPortrait of a Gentleman with aWalking Stick (GD-113) showing
initial sketch of arched doorway inthe background and column withbase on the left, captured with
InGaAs camera at 1500–1680
nm, bandpass filter, photograph:
Shawn Digney-Peer© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking StickPage 5 of 8Endnotes
1. The authors would like to thank Marieke de Winkel for clarifying the terminology of thefigure’s dress and for pointing out the reference of the gorget, hanger, and rapier to militia
membership(personalcommunicationwithDominiqueSurh,September

2013,correspondence kept on file at the Leiden Gallery). Two militia companies, named after theirpatron saints Sebastiaan and Joris (George), kept the citizens of Leiden safe. The figure’s
dress is similar to the painting attributed to the young Dou,A Leiden Militia Member with anArms Still-Life, in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest; see Bob van den Boogart, “ALeiden Militia Member with an Arms Still-Life,” in The Mystery of the Young
Rembrandt, ed. Ernst van de Wetering and Bernhard Schnackenburg (Exh. cat. Kassel,
Staatliche Museen Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis)(Amsterdam, 2002), no. 68, 336–39.
2. The pendants remained together until they entered different collections when sold at auctionin 1906.
The Statenbijbel, the Dutch translation of the Bible as authorized by the Synod of theReformed Church and the States General, was printed in Leiden in 1637.
3. See also Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Adele F. Seeff, eds.,The Public and Private in Dutch
Culture of the Golden Age, conference proceedings, University of Maryland, College Park,
1993 (Newark, 2000).
4. The earliest known provenance of Portrait of a Gentleman with a Walking Stick dates fromthe early twentieth century when it and the pendant Portrait of a Lady (fig. 1) were in theMarquis de Forbin-Janson Collection in Paris. The two paintings were acquired by separate
owners when they were sold at public auction in 1906, with the male portrait being
purchased by the Baron von Goldschmidt Rothschild in Frankfurt.
5. Marieke de Winkel similarly dates the pendant Portrait of a Lady in Pasadena to ca. 1645
based on the details of her dress (personal communication with Dominique Surh, September
2013, correspondence kept on file at the Leiden Collection). Ronni Baer, however, dates theportraits to about 1640–44. See Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1990), no. 35 a–b. On the portrait in St. Petersburg,
see cat. 36.1–36.4.
6. The Dutch word kastoor (beaver hat) derives from the Latin (and French) word castor, meaning beaver. As French trappers in the Canadian wilderness caught the furriest
beavers, European hatters preferred those pelts. Refer to the Old-Dutch Online Dictionary.
7. Based on age and appearance, it is possible that the subject of this portrait is depicted (onthe far right) in an earlier group portrait of the Leiden militia:Company of Captain Nicolaes
van der Meer, 1626, by Joris van Schooten (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, inv. no. S-387).
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Unfortunately, in this militia painting only Van der Meer has been identified.
For weaponry and other military attributes, see J. B. Kist and J. P. Puype, “Wapens op
schuttersstukken,” in Schutters in Holland: Kracht en zenuwen van de stad , ed. M. CarassoKok and J. Levy van Halm (Zwolle, 1988), 167–68.
8. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New YorkUniversity, 1990), no. 45; and Ronni Baer, in Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in theAge of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Galleryof Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (Washington D.C., 2000),under no. 12, 86, fig. 1.
9. In addition to the Portrait of a Lady in the present collection (GD-116), this device appears inworks such as Painter with Pipe and Book , ca. 1645

in the Rijksmuseum; and inDou’s Self-Portrait, ca. 1645, in a private collection in Spain.
10. A portrait pair by Dou from about the same time shows a similar background scheme . See:
Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613-1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, ArthurWheelock Jr., ed. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London. Dulwich
Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (Washington D.C., 2000), nos. 12 & 13, 86-89.
11. According to Amy Walsh, the pendant in Pasadena has not been examined under IRR(personal communication with the author, September 2013, correspondence kept on file,
The Leiden Gallery).

Provenance
Marquis de Forbin-Janson, Paris (his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 4 December 1906, no. 25,
together with the pendant no. 24 [for 15,700 francs]; sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 17 June 1910,no. 13 [Galerie Charles Brunner, Paris, 1912]).
Baron von Goldschmidt Rothschild, Frankfurt am Main.
[Kunsthandel Douwes, Amsterdam, 1928].
Semmel, Berlin (his sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 21 November 1933, no. 11 [for 5,000francs])
De Geus van den Heuvel, Nieuwersluis, by 1951 (his sale, Sotheby Mak van Waay,Amsterdam, 26–27 April 1976, no. 12 [for 44,000 florins]).
[Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2006].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Eindhoven, Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1949–51.
Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum, “Schilderijen uit de zeventiende, achttiende negentiende en
twintigste eeuw der Nederlandse school uit de verzameling van B. De Geus van den Heuvel,
Amsterdam,” 22 December 1951–13 January 1952, no. 15 [lent by Geus van den Heuvel].
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “De Tijd vam de Tachtigjarige Oorlog,” 19 July–14
September 1952 [lent by Geus van den Heuvel].
Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, “Collectie B. de Geus van den Heuvel te Nieuwersluis,” 11December 1960–26 February 1961, no. 12 [lent by Geus van den Heuvel].

References
Troisième catalogue de la Galerie Charles Brunner. Sales cat. Paris, 1912, no. 9.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. 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. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke
der hervorragendsten Höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts . 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 1:448–49, no. 333.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst. Stuttgart andBerlin, 1913, 29.
Schilderijen uit de zeventiende, achttiende negentiende en twintigste eeuw derNederlandse school uit de verzameling van B. De Geus van den Heuvel, Amsterdam. Exh.
cat. Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum. Schiedam, 1951, 9, no. 15.
Collectie

B.

deGeusvandenHeuvel

teNieuwersluis .

Exh.

cat.

Arnhem,Gemeentemuseum. Arnhem, 1960, 10, no. 12.
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675).” 3 vols. Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 1990, no. 35.
Dominique Surh, Van Tuinen, Ilona and Twilley, John. “Insights from Technical Analysis on aGroup of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” Journal of Historians ofNetherlandish Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 1–3, 9, 30–31, figs. 5a–b, 23a–b, 24a–b.
DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
Walsh, Amy. Northern European Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum . Haven andLondon (forthcoming).
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Technical Summary
The support is a vertically-oriented oval panel made from one plank of vertically-grained wood.
The back of the panel is beveled along the perimeter. It was prepared with a thin, light-coloredground. The paint was built up in thin, successive layers. X-radiography and infrared
reflectography at 780 to 1680 nm show several artist’s changes. Originally there was an archeddoorway behind the sitter and a column on the left side of the painting. Dou also changed theshape of the curtain on the left of the painting and adjusted the position of the sitter’s proper righthand.
The painting is in good condition and the panel remains in plane. The thinly-applied paint has
become more transparent with age, allowing the pattern of the woodgrain to become morevisible. The appearance of the woodgrain may have been enhanced in some areas, such as theshadow under the sitter’s hat brim, by an overly aggressive cleaning at some point in thepainting’s history. In 2007 the painting underwent treatment during which the areas of visible
woodgrain were carefully inpainted.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection