© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 2 of 14

Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot
and Cageca. 1660–65
oil on panel
24.8 x 18.4 cm
GD-105Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nd

ed.

EditedbyArthurK.

Wheelock

Jr.

New

York,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-young-woman-in-a-niche-with-a-parrot-and-cage-2/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 3 of 14

In 1665 the distinguished Leiden collector Johan de Bye held an exhibition ofComparative Figures

twenty-seven paintings by Gerrit Dou, including two works currently in The
Leiden Collection: Goat in a Landscape (GD-114) and this delightful genre
scene, described in De Bye’s inventory as: “meysge in een venster mit 1
papegaey en koy” (a young girl in a window with one parrot and cage).[1] In
this scene, a young woman leans out from behind a simple arched stoneniche while holding her pet bird she has taken out of an elaborate metal
cage. The girl gazes to our right with an expression of sweet anticipation
enlivening her face, as though in the act of showing this rarified beauty to acompanion outside of the frame. Obscuring our view into the darkened
interior in which she stands is a gathered red curtain hanging from the innerFig 1. Detail of drapery showing
hatching, Young Woman in a
Niche with a Parrot and Cage,
GD-105edge of the niche.
The composition is known from a number of versions and copies, of which atleast eleven have been recorded. This example, which resurfaced only in
1955, was unknown to early twentieth-century scholars, including Wilhelm
Martin and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, who tentatively identified otherversions as Dou’s original. Martin considered a now-lost painting formerly in
the Gagarin Collection in St. Petersburg[2] and another version in the Muséed’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva to be autograph. The attribution of the latter
work, which was also cautiously accepted by Hofstede de Groot, was later

Fig 2. Detail of Gerrit Dou, Old
Man Praying, ca. 1665–70, oil on
panel, 17.8 x 12.7 cm, GD-107

rejected by Ronni Baer, who noted that the signature was false and deemed
the work to be a copy after Dou.[3]Martin and Hofstede de Groot were correct when they questioned whether
theversionsthey[4]

Bye’s exhibition.

knew

were

the

work

describedinDe

Stylistically and technically, however, the present work ischaracteristic of Dou’s manner from the first half of the 1660s.[5] The
master’s versatility and boldness are evident in the overall variety of thebrushwork. The modeling of the face is smooth and blended, yet distinct
parallel hatching can be seen below the figure’s proper right eye. The foldsof the dark red curtain are modeled with short parallel lines that evoke theFig 3. Detail of blue-fronted
Amazon parrot, Young Woman ina Niche with a Parrot and Cage,
GD-105pattern of twill and the texture of wool (fig 1). This distinctive hatching isfound often in Dou’s work from the 1660s and is seen, for example, on theback of the clasping hands in Old Man Praying (GD-108) (fig 2).[6] In both
works, the ground shows through in areas around the figures’ hairline andface, and is here particularly visible along the strand of pearls around thelady’s neck.
The manner in which Dou built the paint layers from the ground up, from© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 4 of 14

distant elements to foreground objects, is characteristic of his painting
technique. For example, Dou painted the lower portion of the red curtain andthe woman’s apron before depicting the birdcage so that the reds would
show

betweenthecage’swires;

subsequently

hepaintedthe parrot.[7] Similarly, the range of tonalities with which Dou depicted thewoman’s hair at her hairline is comparable to techniques observed in hisother paintings (see Portrait of a Woman in Profile, GD-110).
A final argument in favor of the painting’s status as the prime version is theanatomically accurate depiction of the parrot perched on the young woman’s
index finger. The species is a South American bird known as the blue-fronted
Amazon (Amazona aestiva), indigenous to parts of Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia,
and Argentina.[8] Its features include a blue and yellow (or white) face with

Fig 4. Emblem from Jacob Cats,
Sinne-en minnebeelden(Rotterdam, 1627), no. 14:“Amissa Libertate Laetior”(Although freedom is lost, he ishappier)distinctive red feathers at the bend and tip of the wings, while its overallplumage is green (fig 3). Dou’s parrot probably appears blue rather thangreen because of pigment change or the loss of a yellow glaze covering theunderlying blue paint through an overly aggressive restoration of thepainting.[9] Dou must have based his image on an actual bird in captivity:
parrots were often imported to the Netherlands during this period on ships
belonging to the Dutch West India Company.[10] Though Dou accurately
rendered the parrot’s features, in later versions of this work the bird’s
distinctive markings, particularly the red on the feathers at the bend and tip of
the wing, are often lacking.
In the seventeenth century, parrots were expensive status symbols,
particularly[11]World.

those

that

survived

the

long

journey

fromtheFig 5. Daniel Heinsius, Emblemata
amatoria (Amsterdam, 1608), no.
21: “Perch’io stesso mi strinsi”(For I have bound myself)

New

Associated with luxury, wealth and prestige, they were especiallyfavored pets because of their beautiful songs, exotic shapes, and colorfulplumage. Their ability to emulate speech further enhanced their appeal andgave them a reputation for being excellent learners. In his Sinne-en
minnebeelden of 1627, Jacob Cats pointed to this virtue in an emblem
depicting a parrot in a hanging cage (fig 4), with a subtext that reads:“Dwanck, leert sanck” (Discipline teaches speech).[12] The accompanying text
describes the bird in captivity as a symbol for the discipline and educationthat are necessary for an adult to lead an honorable and refined life.
Parrots became popular motifs in high-style Dutch genre painting, particularly
beginning in the 1660s.[13] One well-known example is Frans van Mieris’s Young Woman Feeding a Parrot (FM-112) from about 1663 in the present
collection, in which a young woman is shown feeding her pet bird whileFig 6. Caspar Netscher, Woman
Feeding a Parrot, with a Page,
signed and dated, lower left,
CNetscher. Ao./ 16.66, oil on
panel, 46 x 37 cm, National
Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.,
The Lee and Juliet Folger Fundpausing from her sewing. Here the parrot has been interpreted as a symbol© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 5 of 14

for the eagerness to learn, while the woman’s needlework refers to her
domestic virtues of diligence and industry.[14]The symbolism of birds and birdcages in genre scenes often had amorous
and/or erotic connotations, sometimes subtle and sometimes not.[15] For
example, Cats’s emblem cited above offers an additional reading where theencaged bird is seen as a metaphor for love’s sweet entrapment: “Bly, door
slaverny” (Joy through captivity).[16] This same symbolism is found in Daniel
Heinsius’s emblem, which makes use of the Petrarchian motto “Perch’io
stesso mi strinsi” (For I have bound myself) and illustrates a recumbent
cupid observing the sight of birds willingly flying into a cage (fig 5).[17]Another closely related tradition is the symbolism of a bird freed from its
cage, often represented by an amorous couple who entice a bird out of its
cage with a bite of food, or by a female whose bird has just escaped
captivity. In both cases, this emblematic image was understood to refer tolost virginity and the loss of innocence.[18]In light of the varied symbolic meanings associated with a bird and its cage,
this work would undoubtedly have amused viewers with its ambiguity.
Situated at the threshold of her domestic realm, the young woman has freed
her parrot from its cage and, smilingly, presents it to the outside world. She
appears unconcerned that in one fleeting instant her beloved bird could fly
away, forever lost from her safekeeping. By depicting the very manifestationof the woman’s youthful innocence in this seemingly carefree moment, Dou
invites the viewer to complete the story. Caspar Netscher captured this sameidea a few years later in his Woman Feeding a Parrot of 1666 (National
Gallery of Art, Washington), in which he staged a comparable scene at anarched window (fig 6). As opposed to Dou’s young woman, Netscher’s girlhas a beguiling glance and a coquettish smile, suggesting that a loss of
innocence may have already transpired.

- Dominique Surh, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
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Endnotes

1. Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, Leidse Fijnschilders: van Gerrit
Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De
Lakenhal) (Leiden, 1988), 36–37; Ivan Gaskell, “Gerrit Dou, His Patrons and the Art of
Painting,” Oxford Art Journal 5, no. 1 (1982): 19–21. This painting is listed as number 17 in
the inventory. Johan de Bye’s exhibition list was first published in Wilhelm Martin, Gerard
Dou, trans. Clara Bell (London, 1902), 145–46, no. 17; see also Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh
Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis
van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (Leiden, 1986–92), 3b: appendix 1, 486, no. 17.
2. The Sotheby’s 2007 sale catalogue erroneously equated the present painting with theversion formerly in the Gagarin collection. There are obvious differences between these
versions, visible through photographic comparison alone, but the most obvious varianceresides in their different dimensions. On the version formerly in the Gagarin collection, see
Pierre Paul van Weiner, et al., Les anciennes écoles de peinture dans les palais et collections
priveés russes (Exh. cat. Brussels) (Brussels, 1910), 93, no. 319; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard
Dou, des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben (Stuttgart, 1913), no.
111; Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New York
University, 1990), Appendix A, under “Untraced Works.”
3. This version (Musee d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, inv. no. 1932-12), which contains a false
signature at the lower left “Douw,” is still attributed to Dou but is widely thought to be by his
pupil Dominicus van Tol. See Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of theWorks of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work ofJohn Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, 1: 400, no. 161, 8 vols. (London, 1907–28).
Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke derhervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris,
1907–28). Wilhelm Martin, Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou (Leiden, 1901), no. 234;
Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, trans. Clara Bell (London, 1902), no. 161; Wilhelm Martin,
Gerard Dou, sa vie et son oeuvre: Étude sur la peinture hollandaise et les marchaunds au dixseptième siècle (Paris, 1911), 182, no. 117; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters
Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 24 (Stuttgart, 1913), 112; Louis
Hautecoeur, Catalogue de la galerie des beaux-arts (Geneva, 1948), no. 24; Ronni Baer,“The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New York University, 1990),
Catalogue C, “Works of rejected attribution,” no. C71.
4. Wilhelm Martin believed that Dou made versions of his own compositions, which, in addition
to the copies made after him by imitators, turns the question of versions into a complicatedone. See Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst in© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 7 of 14

Gesamtausgaben 24 (Stuttgart, 1913), xx.
5. While Martin dated the composition to ca. 1665, Christopher White argued that Dou was thefirst to treat this subject matter and supposed that the painting probably dates before 1663,
the signed date of Frans van Mieris’s Woman Feeding a Parrot (FM-112). He notes that Van
Mieris clearly derived his inspiration from Dou. See Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters
Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben (Stuttgart, 1913), 112; Christopher White,
The Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (Cambridge, 1982), 70, no.
113.
6. Dou probably learned the technique during his early training with the glazer Bartholomeus
Dolendo; it is characteristic of Dou’s brushwork throughout his career. See Jørgen Wadum,“Dou Doesn’t Paint, Oh No, He Juggles with His Brush: Gerrit Dou—A RembrandtesqueFijnschilder,” in Art Matters: Netherlands Technical Studies in Art 1 (2002): 62–77.
7. Based on a photograph of a copy of the present painting that recently appeared on themarket (probably equivalent with the painting that appeared at Bonhams in 1965), it is clearthat the depiction of the apron, birdcage, and bird unfolded concurrently during the paintprocess. Ronni Baer, who provided a study photograph, suspects this version may be by afollower, possibly Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (1640–91), one of Dou’s pupils (e-mailcorrespondence with Baer,

31 October 2012, and photograph kept on file, The Leiden

Collection, New York).
8. The author would like to thank Dr. Luke Hunter of Panthera and Dr. Nancy Clum and Dr. Juan
Cornejo of the Wildlife Conservation Society for their help in identifying the parrot species. Fora discussion of its geographical distribution and habits, see Joseph M. Forshaw, Parrots of
the World: An Identification Guide Illustrated by Frank Knight (Princeton and Oxford, 2006),
149, plate 112.
9. John Twilley notes that the possible removal of the yellow glazing can only be inferred but notproven (unpublished written correspondence between the author and John Twilley,conservation scientist, October 2012, kept on file, The Leiden Collection, New York).
10. When Prince Johan Maurits returned from his seven-year sojourn in Brazil as the governor of
the Dutch colony between 1637 and 1644, he brought back with him countless exotic live
specimens and hundreds of zoological drawings and watercolors that illustrated theenormous wealth of exotic fauna he encountered there. Two pioneering illustrations of the
Amazona aestiva by Georg Marcgraf (1610–44) and Albert Eckhout (ca. 1610–65) were madedirectly after live birds in Brazil during the artists’ seven-year expedition with the prince. The
drawings were kept in the prince’s palace in The Hague upon his return in 1644 and werebound into a magnificent album known as the Libri picturati (now housed in the Jagiellon
University Library, Kraków) and given as a gift in 1652 to his friend Frederick Willem, Elector
Palatine of Brandenburg. See Peter J. P. Whitehead and Marinus Boseman, A Portrait ofDutch Seventeenth-Century Brazil: Animals, Plants, and People by the Artists of Johan© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 8 of 14

Maurits of Nassau (Amsterdam, 1989), 35–37; 40–41; 226, plate 13; Rebecca Parker
Brienen, “From Brazil to Europe: The Zoological Drawings of Albert Eckhout and Georg
Marcgraf,” in Early Modern Zoology: The Construction of Animals in Science, Literature, andthe Visual Arts, ed. Karl A. E. Enenkel and Paul J. Smith, 2 vols. (Leiden and Boston, 2007)
1: 273–314, figs. 1 and 12. On the influence of these drawings on European art, see also
Quentin Buvelot, ed., Albert Eckhout: Dutch Artist in Brazil (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis)(Zwolle, 2004); Rebecca Parker Brienen, Visions of Savage Paradise: Albert Eckhout, Court
Painter in Colonial Dutch Brazil (Amsterdam, 2006); Thomas P. Campbell, ed., Tapestry in
the Baroque: Threads of Splendor (Exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Madrid,
Palacio Real) (New York and New Haven, 2007), esp. 390–97.
11. Wilma George, “Alive or Dead: Zoological Collections in the Seventeenth Century,” in The
Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century
Europe, ed. Oligver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (Oxford, 1985), 184; Pieter Smit, ed.,Hendrik Engel’s Alphabetical List of Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries (Amsterdam,
1986); Louise E. Robbins, Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots: Exotic Animals inEighteenth-Century Paris (Baltimore, 2002) 9–37; Eric Baratay and Elisabeth HardouinFuiger, Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West (London, 2002) 32–38.
12. Jacob Cats, Sinne-en minnebeelden “Dwanck, leert sanck. In dien de Papegay waer in het
wout gebleven,/ Sy hadde daer geleyt een woeft en beestigh leven;/ Maer nu sy door
bedwang by menschen is geleert,/ Soo komt’et datse spreeckt, en in het hof verkeert./ Is
iemant oyt gesint om eere na te jagen,/ Hy moet van eersten af, hy moet gewilligh dragen/ Al
wat de tucht gebiet. Bedwang ontrent de jeught/ Wort eere met’er tijdt, en niet als enckel
vreught.” (Rotterdam, 1627), no. 14
13. An illustration of Medghde-Wapen from Jacob Cats’s Houwelyck, Dat is de ganse
gelegentheyt des echten staets (Middleburg, 1625) depicts two elegant young women withparrots perched on their hands surrounded by other attributes. See Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 124; Wayne Franits, Paragons of Virtue:
Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting Its Stylistic and Thematic
Evolution (New Haven and London, 1993), 20–26, fig. 7; Peter Sutton, Pieter de Hooch (Exh.
cat. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum) (New Haven, 1998),
68–75; Marjorie B. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch
Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 69 n. 65; Adriaan Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu Life and Work: A
Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 110, fig. 39.
14. Quentin Buvelot, “A Lady Feeding a Parrot,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The
Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 163, 165,
fig. 33a; Wayne Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century
Genre Painting; Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution (New Haven and London, 1993), 22–26,
80–86. Other representations of women with parrots include Gabriel Metsu, Woman with© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 9 of 14

Sewing in a Niche, oil on panel, 28.5 x 22 cm, Pushkin Museum, Moscow; Gabriel Metsu,
Young Lady with a Parrot, oil on panel, 34 x 26 cm, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, no. 693;
Godfried Schalcken, Old Woman Feeding a Parrot, oil on panel, 27.6 x 21.6 cm, The Leiden
Collection, New York, no. GS-115; Pieter de Hooch, A Woman Feeding a Parrot with a Man,signed, oil on canvas, 50.8 x 43.8 cm, present whereabouts unknown; Pieter de Hooch, A
Couple with a Parrot, ca. 1675–77, oil on canvas, 73 x 62 cm, Wallraf-Richartz Museum,
Cologne, no. 239; Pieter de Hooch, Woman and Child with a Parrot, signed and dated 1673,
present whereabouts unknown.
15. As Eddy de Jongh has pointed out, the presence of birds in Dutch genre painting oftentimes
had sexual or erotic overtones, informed by the word vogelen, which was used as a reference
to both “bird catching” and “copulation.” See Eddy de Jongh, “A Bird’s-Eye View of Erotica:
Double Entendre in a Series of Seventeenth-Century Genre Scenes,” in Questions ofMeaning: Theme and Motif in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting, ed. and trans. Michael
Hoyle (Leiden, 2000), 22–58, esp. 33, 43–46 (first published as “Erotica in vogelsperspectif:
De dubbelzinnigheid van een reeks zeventiende-eeuwse genrevoorstellingen,” in Simiolus 3[1968–69]); see also Eddy de Jongh, Tot Lering en Vermaak: Betekenissen van Hollandse
genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)(Amsterdam, 1976), 226–27.
16. “Bly, door slaverny. Dooen ick mijn eygens was, en mochte alomme sweven,/ Doen leyd’ ickeven staegh een stil, en droevig leven;/ Maer na dat my de Min bracht in den soeten dwang,/
Doen weird mijn tonge los, en maeckte bly gesang;/ Ick lach, ick raes, ick speel, en schoon
ick sta gefloten,/ Geen tijt heeft my verveelt, geen ding heft my verdroten;/ O soete slaverny,en aengenaem gewelt!/ Het is een minnaer vreught, dat ander lieden quelt.” Jacob Cats,
Sinne-en minnebeelden (Rotterdam, 1627), no. 14.
17. “Als ick hebb’vry gheweest,/ ick hadde groot verlanghen/ Om vast te moghen zijn, ickmoeste zijn ghevanghen,/ Ick sach het minnen aen/ het was een lieflick spel/ Waer dat ick
henen sach/ het gingh al even wel:/ Ick sach de vryers aen/ ick sach haer soentjens gheven/
En soete prate-uytslaen; ick docht/ dat waer mijn leven./ My docht het gingh soo wel/ maer
als ick ben int perck/ Nu word’ ick eerst ghewaer hoe dat het gaet te werck.” Daniel
Heinsius, Emblemata amatoria (Amsterdam, 1608), no. 21.
18. Jacob Cats’s emblem, “Reperire, Perire Est” (To discover is to be undone), from Sinne-en
minnebeelden (Rotterdam, 1627), no. 21, illustrates a girl whose bird escapes from a box, ametaphor for her lost “honor.” For a discussion of the emblematic tradition, its transcription,and its depiction in painting, 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 Motif in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting, ed. and trans. Michael Hoyle(Leiden, 2000), 22–58, esp. 33, 43–46; Eddy de Jongh, Tot Lering en Vermaak: Betekenissen
van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 10 of 14

Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 224–27; Peter Sutton, Pieter de Hooch (exh. cat., London,
Dulwich Picture Gallery; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum) (New Haven, 1998), 68–75.

ProvenancePossibly Johan de Bye, Leiden, by 1665.
(Sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 7 June 1955, no. 34).
Private collection, Paris; by descent to a private collector, United States (sale, Sotheby’s,
New York, 8 June 2007, no. 212; [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2007]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Possibly Leiden, front room in the house of Johannes Hannot on the Breestraat, September
1665 [lent by Johan de Bye].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012[lent by the present owner].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9March–31 August 2014 [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 of Art,
22 October–21 January 2018 [lent by the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of 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 thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 11 of 14

References
Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor Hermann, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A. J. van Dissel. Het
Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. 10 vols. Leiden, 1986–92, 3b:486, no. 17.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou. Translated from Dutch by Clara Bell. London, 1902. 145– 46,
no. 17.
Wieseman,MarjorieE.

CasparNetscher

and

Late

Seventeenth-Century

Dutch

Painting. Doornspijk, 2002, 68, no. 65.
Surh, Dominique, Ilona van Tuinen, John Twilley. “Insights from Technical Analysis on aGroup of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection. JHNA 6 no. 1 (Winter 2014): 2-3,
12, 18-19, figs. 9a-b, 31, 47, 51. DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Les Perroquets.” In Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre. Edited
by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 316, 318, cat. no. 49. Exh.
cat. Paris, Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, D. C., National
Gallery of Art. Paris, 2017.
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Birds of a Feather.” In Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting:
Inspiration and Rivalry. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr., 184-85, 242, cat. no. 131.1. Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Gallery of
Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. New Haven and London, 2017.
Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting. Exh. brochure. Washington, D.C., National
Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2017, fig. 3.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of
Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina
Lyubimova, 25; 33. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow,
2018.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage.” In The Age of
Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina
Lyubimova, 92–93; 234, no. 13. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat.
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage
Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,
Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the
Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 30. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden
Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 12 of 14

Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 126, 128, no. 54. [Exhibition catalogue also
published in French and Arabic.]

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Attributed to Gerrit Dou, Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on panel, rounded top, 15.5 x 18 cm,
whereabouts unknown. Wilhelm Martin, Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou (Leiden,1901), 234; Exhibition of Old Masters (Exh. cat. St. Petersburg, 1909), no. 319; P. P. Weiner,
Les anciennes écoles de peinture dans les palais et collections priveés russes (Exh. cat.
Brussels) (Brussels, 1910), 93, no. 319; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde,Klassiker der Kunst (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), no. 111; Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit
Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1990), Appendix A, under“Untraced Works.” Previously N. Gagarin Collection, St. Petersburg [N. Beets, 1930, no. 39,
but with rectangular panel, 22 x 16 cm].

2. After Gerrit Dou (?), Woman with a Parrot, signed “GDouw” lower left side, oil on panel,rounded top, 24.5 x 19 cm, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, inv. no. 1932-12. Arti et
Amicitiae (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, 1872); Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné ofthe Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on theWork 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 and Paris, 1907–28), 1:400, no. 161; Wilhelm Martin,
Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou (Leiden, 1901), no. 234; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard
Dou, trans. Clara Bell (London, 1902), no. 161; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, sa vie et son
oeuvre: Étude sur la peinture hollandaise et les marchands au dix-septième siècle (Paris,
1911), 182, no. 117; Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst(Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), 112; Geneva Museum collection catalogue, 1948, no. 24; Ronni
Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York University,1990), Catalogue C, “Works of rejected attribution,” no. C71. Previously (sale, Blondel de
Gagny, Paris, 10 December 1776, no. 105; sale, Blondel d’Azincourt, Paris, 10 February
1783, no. 21; sale, Jacques Antoine van Dam, Dordrecht, 1 June 1829, no. 32; sale, P. J. andB. van der Meulen, de Coblence, Amsterdam, 22 August 1850, no. 15); [Arti et Amicitiae,1872]; Crommelin Collection, Driebergen; (sale, Van Gogh, Amsterdam, 25 November 1913,
no. 340); Smidt van Gelder, 1931; from whom bequeathed to the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire,
Geneva.

3. After Gerrit Dou, Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on rectangular panel, 21.7 x 18.4 cm,
whereabouts unknown. Tentoonstelling (Exh. cat. Gemeente Museum, Arnhem, 1960–61),© 2020 The Leiden CollectionYoung Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 13 of 14

no. 13; Catalogus Schilderijen- aquarellen en etsen, verzameling B. de Geus van den Heuvel(Amsterdam, 1963), no. 13. Previously F. J. ten Bos, Almelo (sale, Paul Brandt, Amsterdam,
1959, no. 5; sale, Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 26–27 April 1976); B. de Geus van den Heuvel,
Nieuwersluis, 1963.

4. After Gerrit Dou, A Young Girl with a Parrot, signed “GDouw” lower left side, oil on panel,rounded top, dimensions unknown, whereabouts unknown, possibly equivalent with Version
3, above.

5. After Gerrit Dou, Woman with a Parrot, oil on panel, 24 x 18.5 cm, whereabouts unknown.
Catalogus van de Collectie Goudstikker (1917), no. 19; Catalogus van de Collectie
Goudstikker (1919), no. 25. Previously E. R. Glückstatt, Copenhagen [Jacques Goudstikker,
Amsterdam, 1917–19].

6. After Gerrit Dou, A Woman with a Parrot, oil on panel, 24.1 x 18.4 cm, whereabouts unknown.
Previously (sale, Phillips, September 1965, no. 28).

7. After Gerrit Dou, Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on panel, 25 x 19.5 cm, whereabouts unknown.
Previously (sale, Brussels, Trussart, 19 November 1956, no. 29).

8. Possibly Dominicus van Tol, after Gerrit Dou, Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on panel, 26 x 18.5
cm, whereabouts unknown. Previously E. Burg-Berger, Weenen, 1935.

9. Pieter van Slingeland, after Gerrit Dou, A Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on panel, 22.5 x 16.5
cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, inv. no. KMSsp454. Two Golden Ages:
Masterpieces of Dutch and Danish Painting (Zwolle, 2001), 176, no. 70.

10. Attributed to Gerrit Dou, A Girl with a Parrot Cage at a Window, oil on panel, 36.5 x 29.8 cm,
The John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia, inv. no. 432.

11. After Gerrit Dou, A Young Girl with a Parrot, oil on panel, support and dimensions unknown,whereabouts unknown. Previously Dr. L. Weiler, Strasbourg 1963.

12. After Gerrit Dou, A Girl at a Window with a Parrot, oil on panel, 22.9 x 17.8 cm, possibly
equivalent with another version. British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United
Kingdom (Exh. cat. London, Pall Mall, 1854 and 1867). Previously Samuel Wheeler, Esq.,
London, 1854–67; (sale, Christie, Mason & Woods, London, 7 July 1900, no. 80).

Technical Summary
The support is a vertically grained oak panel made from one board from a tree with a presumed
fell date after 1587.[1] The grain is slightly skewed to the vertical axis. There are some irregularnotches or gauges around the outer edges and there is a peg-hole on the left side of the reverse,
indicating that the panel may have been reused timber or cut down from a larger panel.[2] The topof the panel is arched, following the shape of the painted niche in the composition. There are no© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
Page 14 of 14

bevels on the reverse, but the panel has not been thinned.
Dou prepared the panel with a thin, light ground, which does not obscure the texture of thewoodgrain. It can be seen around the edges of the panel and through the young woman’s thinly
painted apron. The ground is radio-opaque, highlighting the pattern of the woodgrain in the Xradiographs and indicating that it may contain a lead-based pigment.
The paint was thinly and smoothly applied. The paint of the curtain is slightly raised in comparison
to that of the sitter’s hand, indicating the hand was painted first. The bars of the birdcage werepainted on top of the sitter’s apron, and the red curtain and the parrot were painted on top of the
birdcage.
The X-radiograph shows that the woman was originally painted with a broader smile, and her
proper right eye originally gazed upward. The X-radiograph also shows some undefined shapes in
the area of the curtain, indicating a compositional change in this area. Infrared photography at
780, 850, and 1000 nm indicates that the fingers of the woman’s hand holding the parrot wereoriginally more curled.
The painting is in excellent condition. The panel bears a slight convex warp when viewed from thefront and there is a small vertical split extending 3.8 cm down from the right side of the roundededge. There are paint losses along the edges of the panel and there is damage along the edge
near the bottom right corner. The paint has become slightly transparent with age, especially in thesitter’s face and arm. It was treated in 2007–8.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Ian Tyers, dendrochronological report, November 2010.
2. Ian Tyers, dendrochronological report, November 2010.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection