A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1665
oil on panel with arched top
33.5 x 25.3 cm
GD-117© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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How to cite
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord” (2022). 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.

In this intimate interior space, a young woman enjoys the sweet pleasures of playing

Comparative Figuresthe clavichord. Interrupted from her music, she pauses and turns toward the viewer as
her fingers linger over the keyboard, several of them still delicately gracing the top ofits keys. Her confident pose and alert demeanor suggest this is a song she has played
many times before, its melody reverberating in the air and inviting us to join in her
private performance.
Gerrit Dou’s A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord recently resurfaced after morethan two centuries in German royal collections descended from Frederick the Great(1712–86), the King of Prussia.[1] An exciting rediscovery within the artist’s oeuvre,[2]the painting typifies Dou’s refined genre scenes from the 1660s. During this period,
like a number of his contemporaries, he expanded his subject matter to include
figures in elegant domestic settings and, particularly, the activities of upper-class
young women.[3] In this work, Dou situated the woman close to the foreground andFig 1. Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a
Clavichord, ca. 1665, oil on panel,
37.7 x 29.9 cm, Dulwich Picture
Gallery, London, inv. no. DPG056.

turned in a three-quarter pose, with a tapestry pulled open behind her, framing her
form against the darkened interior.[4] She is elegantly dressed in a fur-trimmed jacket,
a pearl necklace, and earrings, with ribbons of red, blue, and yellow tied into her hair.
Light enters the room through a window at the left and illuminates her round, flushed
cheeks, button nose, and distinctive, heart-shaped mouth. It also strikes the soft foldsof the oriental carpet on the table, highlighting the back of the clavichord and thethin, red-orange string used to hold the lid in its proper position.[5]Dou depicted a woman playing the same instrument in two other closely related works
from around 1665, A Woman Playing a Clavichord in the Dulwich Picture Gallery (fig 1) and Young Woman Playing a Clavichord (fig 2) in a private collection.[6] In the
Fig 2. Gerrit Dou, Young Woman© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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spacious interior of the Dulwich painting, Dou included a number of motifs—among
them a viola da gamba, flute, opened music book, and glass of wine—that

Playing a Clavichord, ca. 1665, oil on
panel, 39 x 32 cm, Private Collection,USA.

symbolically relate to themes of love and harmony.[7] In the background of Young
Woman Playing a Clavichord, Dou included a secondary scene of figures enjoying thesensual pleasures of eating and drinking, which casts a different light on the woman’smusic making by situating it in a moment of shared revelry.[8] The absence of such
symbolic and narrative motifs in the Leiden Collection painting shifts the focus of thecomposition to the woman’s direct and steady engagement with the viewer. Thisapproach, in addition to her more distinctive facial features, distinguishes thispainting from Dou’s other genre scenes. It suggests that he may have intended thepainting as a genre-portrait of a lady playing the clavichord, a practice that was notuncommon among his contemporaries.[9]Dou had likely completed all three of these paintings by September 1665, when twoof them appeared in an exhibition of the artist’s works held in Leiden, organized by
the collector Johan de Bye (ca. 1625–70/72). It was one of the first exhibitions everFig 3. Cornelis-Henricus van Meurs,
after Gerrit Dou, Young Woman
Playing the Clavichord, etching andengraving on paper, 317 x 268 mm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no.
RP-P-1908-292.

devoted to a single artist.[10] Among the twenty-seven paintings by Dou in thisexhibition were “a woman playing a ‘claversimbel’ with a tapestry, in daylight,”
displayed in a case (kas), and “a girl playing a ‘claversingel.’”[11] Although scholars
have traditionally associated these paintings with A Woman Playing a Clavichord (fig1) and Young Woman Playing a Clavichord (fig 2), respectively, the simple
descriptions do not preclude the possibility that the Leiden Collection painting may
have been one of the works in De Bye’s exhibition.[12]The intimate character of Dou’s scene is closely tied to the nature of the clavichord
itself. An early type of portable keyboard that required dexterity of hand, theclavichord was typically performed solo and produced a low, soft sound that made it
ideal for playing in domestic spaces.[13] It was almost exclusively the domain of
women, whose mastery of the instrument was seen as a symbol of virtue andrefinement.[14] On a visit to Rotterdam in 1707, the English traveler Joseph Taylor
remarked with wonder upon the experience of hearing a woman play the harpsichord(a larger keyboard instrument) in the innermost space of a house. Once he returned

Fig 4. X-ray of Gerrit Dou, A Young
Woman Playing a Clavichord, ca.
1665, 33.5 x 25.3 cm, oil on panel
with arched top, The Leiden
Collection, New York, inv. no.
GD-117.

home, he became “melancholy at the thoughts of being so soon deprived of it.”[15] A
similar sentiment is found in the inscription on an eighteenth-century reproductive
print by Cornelis-Henricus van Meurs (b. 1680) after A Young Woman Playing a
Clavichord (fig 3): “To chase away sorrow and melancholy . . . I play the clavichord;
it is how I pass a tranquil life, without fear and without worry about fate or
destiny.”[16]Van Meurs’s print is significant not only for thematic reasons, but also for the insightit provides into the painting’s provenance.[17] Van Meurs likely saw A Young Woman© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Playing a Clavichord in Brussels in 1739 at the sale of the collection of Joseph Sansot,
who served as steward for Louis Gand de Mérode de Montmorency (1678–1767),
Prince of Isenghien.[18] The buyer from the Brussels sale is not named, but it wasprobably Isenghien—in 1754 Jean-Baptiste Descamps records having seen a painting
by Dou of “a young woman playing a clavichord” at Isenghien’s home.[19]By 1763, Dou’s painting can be traced with certainty to Sanssouci, Frederick theGreat’s newly built summer palace in Potsdam. His Picture Gallery rivaled thegreatest collections in Europe and showcased Frederick’s interest in the Leiden
fijnschilders (fine painters), alongside the work of Italian, French, and Flemish
artists.[20] Dou’s painting soon thereafter hung in the Neues Palais, or New Palace,also in Potsdam, where it was exhibited in a small cabinet near the king’s day
bedroom with works by Guido Reni (1575–1642), Godefridus Schalcken

Fig 5. After Gerrit Dou, Girl Playing a
Virginal, 1665–99, 33 x 27.5 cm, oil
on panel, Essex County Council,
Chelmsford Shire Hall, England, inv.
no. 10.

(1643–1706), and Nicholas Poussin (1594–1665).[21] In 1773, Matthias Oesterreich,
who authored the first catalogue of works in the Picture Gallery, described Dou’s
panel as “very treasurable for connoisseurs.”[22]The painting maintained its esteemed status in the royal collections of the
Hohenzollern family thereafter, and eventually formed part of the group of works thatthe last German Emperor and King of Prussia, Wilhelm II (1859–1941), took with
him into exile to the Netherlands in 1918, following the end of World War I and thedissolution of the German empire. Dou’s clavichord player hung in the smoking roomof Huis Doorn, the emperor’s residence in Doorn, from 1920 until his death in1941.[23] It subsequently stayed within the private collection of the Hohenzollern
family and was displayed at the palaces of Cecilienhof, Oels, and Burg Hohenzollern
until its acquisition by The Leiden Collection in 2020.[24]The Leiden Collection’s A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord raises fascinatingFig 6. Gerrit Dou, A Young Woman
Playing a Clavichord, displayed in its
eighteenth-century French Régenceframe, The Leiden Collection, New
York, inv. no. GD-117.

questions about Dou’s painting process. Technical examinations have revealed that theartist made substantial revisions to his initial concept for the composition.[25] Xradiography indicates that Dou initially painted the woman within an arched stone
window frame, a pictorial device he often used to give prominence to the central
figure (fig 4).[26] He also initially included, and then removed, a glass vase on thetable beside the clavichord, and he at first placed the woman’s pearl necklace higher
and further to the right.[27] He made corresponding adjustments to the shape of thewoman’s jacket, particularly the structure and folds of her left sleeve. These
compositional changes demonstrate how Dou worked through his preliminary design
over an extended period of time.[28] Similar changes, for example, appear in Old
Woman at a Window with a Candle and Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book
on Her Lap, both in The Leiden Collection.[29]Also central to questions of Dou’s artistic process are the striking differences in theFig 7. Johannes Vermeer, Young
Woman Seated at a Virginal, ca.
1670–72, oil on canvas, 25.5 x 20.1
cm, The Leiden Collection, New
York, inv. no. JVe-100.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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manner with which he rendered the woman’s face and costume. Dou painted the facewith great subtlety, paying careful attention to the fall of light and shadow over her
skin. He modeled her flesh tones in thin, translucent layers over a cool, grayimprimatura, and he applied creamy highlights around her eyes and along the bridge
and tip of her nose.[30] Her flushed cheeks imbue her with a warmth and liveliness.
Dou depicted the wisps of hair around her face with loose, individual brushstrokes,
which he then smoothly blended along her hairline.
Dou would have executed the woman’s face first, before turning to the rest of thecomposition. The slight difference in scale between her head and body supports this
scenario, which is characteristic of the sequence that Dou and other Dutch artists
customarily followed. Nevertheless, the modeling in the woman’s jacket, which iscomposed of undefined layers of green, yellow, and ochre, does not appear as refinedas that of the face. This difference may be related, in part, to changes that haveoccurred to the paint used to model the jacket.[31] Several of the pigments Dou used
are known to degrade and discolor over time, including (yellow) orpiment and (blue)
vivianite, the latter of which can turn from a rich blue to a muted yellow.[32] It is
likely that the jacket was originally a more vibrant greenish-blue color, not its current
muted greenish-yellow.[33]Other elements in the woman’s costume are also likely related to changes in thecharacter of the paint, which has degraded and become more transparent over time.[34]For instance, the woman’s underlying white chemise and the area around her neckline
are thinly painted, and they now appear unfinished or unresolved. The fur trim, which
has been applied with small clusters of regular, parallel brushstrokes, appears to lackthe nuance and liveliness typically associated with Dou’s rendering of fur.[35] Whether
this difference in the character of the brushstrokes may also indicate the involvementof a pupil is, for the moment, an unsolvable question.[36]A final issue concerning the condition of the painting is whether the panel was
originally a rectangular shape and has been altered into one with rounded upper
corners.[37] Van Meurs’s reproductive etching depicts A Young Woman Playing a
Clavichord as having a rectangular shape.[38] Perhaps significantly, a nearcontemporary painted copy after Dou’s composition also shows the scene as arectangular painting (fig 5).[39] The narrower space behind the musician’s chair in the
Leiden Collection painting also suggests that the original panel may have been slightly
trimmed along the right edge.[40] If such changes to the panel were made, they would
likely have occurred in the eighteenth century, not long after Van Meurs saw Dou’s
painting in Brussels, and they may have been intended to focus the composition more
tightly around the sitter and enhance the intimacy of the scene.[41]It is probable that A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord received its richly© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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ornamented French Régence frame, with its rounded inner corners at the top, in theearly eighteenth century (fig 6).[42] The finely carved and gilded frame reflectsFrederick the Great’s taste for the galleries at Sanssouci.[43] Eighteenth- andnineteenth-century inventories from the palace describe Dou’s painting as one oftwenty-five hanging in “gilt frames” with rounded corners at the top.[44] The painting’s
splendid frame, which has been recently restored, is a fitting home for Dou’s
rediscovered clavichord player.[45]Alongside its fascinating history, A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord owes its
distinctive place within Dou’s oeuvre to the painting’s clarity of subject and portraitlike depiction of its sitter. The sensitive treatment of the musician, poised before the
keyboard and gazing directly at the viewer, would have appealed to the sensibilities ofa sophisticated patron. Dou’s approach to this subject matter also provided inspiration
for works by fellow artists such as Johannes Vermeer, including, most notably, his
Young Woman Seated at a Virginal in The Leiden Collection (fig 7). At the sametime, the puzzling aspects of Dou’s painting leave unanswered questions about theartist’s working methods, his studio practices in Leiden, and the involvement of his
pupils more broadly. Whatever the circumstances of its early history and production,
the painting will continue to enchant us in myriad ways.

- Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 2022

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Endnotes
1. Frederick the Great acquired A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord by 1763. See Provenance anddiscussion that follows below.
2. The painting was published in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century catalogues of Dutch paintings byJohn Smith and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, including the first monograph on Dou, by Wilhelm Martin,in 1901 (Wilhelm Martin, “Leven en werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het
schildersleven van zijn tijd” [PhD diss., Leiden University, 1901], 218, no. 236), but this work hasotherwise remained largely out of public view and little known to scholars. Ronni Baer included it
among the list of “works of rejected attribution” in her dissertation on Dou in 1990 (“The Paintings ofGerrit Dou [1613–1675]” [PhD diss., New York University, 1990], 2: no. C67). Michiel Jonker andEllinoor Bergvelt’s recent Dulwich Picture Gallery: Catalogue of the Dutch, Flemish and German Schools,
with Addenda to the British Schools, vol. 1, A–N, RKD Studies (The Hague, 2021), no. DPG56, underrelated works, no. 3, raises the possibility that the Leiden Collection painting may be the work of apupil, but the authors provide no further explanation. See References and Exhibition History.
3. Dou’s interest in high-life genre scenes in the 1660s coincided with the work of other Dutch genre
painters, such as Gabriel Metsu (1629–67), Frans van Mieris (1635–81), and Johannes Vermeer(1632–75). Gerard ter Borch (1582/1583–1662) probably served as the inspiration for Dou’s interest in
this elevated subject matter. See Ronni Baer, “The Life and Art of Gerrit Dou,” in 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), 39–42; and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Erudition and Artistry: The Enduring Appeal of Dutch
Genre Painting,” in Vermeer and the Masters of Dutch Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, ed.
Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre Museum;
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2017),
29–31.
4. Dou introduced the tapestry motif in his genre scenes around 1660, typically placing them in theforeground of the composition, as he did in his two other scenes of women at the clavichord (see figs 1
and 2). In this work, he reversed the motif by placing the tapestry behind the woman. Ronni Baer
discusses Dou’s use of the tapestry motif in “The Life and Art of Gerrit Dou,” in 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), 40–42.
5. A comparable red string attaching the clavichord’s cover survives on an extant example, Anonymous,
Italy, clavichord with depiction of a naval battle (the Battle of Lepanto?), late 16th century, length 113.1
cm, Collection Musée de la musique, Paris; illustrated in Marjorie E. Wieseman, “Inviting Duets,”
in Vermeer and the Masters of Dutch Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Galleryof Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2017), 139, fig. 69.
6. Jan Miense Molenaer’s (1610–68) Woman Playing the Virginal from ca. 1637 (Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum) preceded Dou’s depiction of this subject matter by several decades, though interest in thesubject—and, notably, the depiction of a lone woman at the clavichord—emerged only in the 1660s.
7. Music had long been associated with metaphors for love and harmony. For the Dulwich painting, seeRonni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss., New York University, 1990), 2: no.
111; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Gerrit Dou, 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt (Exh.
cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague,
Mauritshuis) (Zwolle, 2000), no. 30; and Michiel Jonker and Ellinoor Bergvelt, Dulwich Picture Gallery:
Catalogue of the Dutch, Flemish and German Schools, with Addenda to the British Schools, vol. 1, A–N,
RKD Studies (The Hague, 2021), no. DPG56.
8. Dou introduced the depiction of secondary scenes in his genre paintings in the 1650s and typically usedthem to give meaning to the figures in the foreground. See Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou(1613–1675)” (PhD diss., New York University, 1990), “Works of Uncertain Attribution,” 2: no. B6(Baer revised her opinion and accepted the work in 2012, as cited in the object record at the
RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History: http://rkd.nl/explore/images/249487). This painting, now ina private collection in the United States, was formerly with Johnny Van Haeften, London.
9. There are no other known instances of Dou executing a genre-portrait, but artists such as Jan Steen(1626–79), Frans van Mieris, and Gabriel Metsu often incorporated self-portraits in or used their wives
or commissioned sitters as models for their genre scenes. Metsu, for example, likely painted Elegant
Lady Writing at Her Desk in The Leiden Collection as this type of genre-portrait. Dou had largely
abandoned painting portraits by this later point in his career, though a notable exception is Portrait of aYoung Woman, ca. 1655 (National Gallery, London). I would like to thank Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. forfirst raising this question during our discussions about the painting.
10. The exhibition was held in the voorcamer (front room) of the home of Johannes Hannot. An
advertisement for the exhibition appeared in the Haarlemsche Courant on 26 September 1665. See
Wilhelm Martin, Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou (Leiden, 1901), 72.
11. No. 2, “Een claversimbelspeelster met een tapijt, daghlicht”; and no. 23 (paintings without cases), “Eerst[sonder kas] een mit een lijst, sijnde een meysge op een claversingel speelende.” Notably, two of Dou’s
paintings in The Leiden Collection, Goat in a Landscape and Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot andCage, were also likely exhibited in Johannes Hannot’s house on the Breestraat. For the 1665 document,
see Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Sheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds., Het
Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht (Leiden, 1986–92), 3b: 486, nos. 2 and 23. The terms
claversimbel and claversingel were used interchangeably in the seventeenth century to describe theclavichord as well as other keyboard instruments, such as the virginal or harpsichord. However, the latter
two were larger than the clavichord, and their strings run perpendicular to the keys, while a clavichord’s
run parallel. Marjorie E. Wieseman, Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure (Exh. cat. London,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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National Gallery of Art, 2013) (London, 2013), 74–75.
12. Because A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord has been for so long overlooked by scholars, it has neverbeen considered as a candidate for one of the paintings by Dou in De Bye’s exhibition. None of Dou’s
paintings of clavichord players can be traced with certainty after 1665, making it impossible todistinguish among them. The provenance of the paintings becomes clearer—and less intertwined—after
the mid-eighteenth century. Some of these issues are discussed in Michiel Jonker and Ellinoor Bergvelt,
Dutch and Flemish Paintings: Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, 2016), 70–71.
13. Lucas van Dijck and Ton Koopman, The Harpsichord in Dutch Art before 1800 (Zutphen, 1987), n.p.;
Edward Buijsen and Louis Peter Grijp, Music and Painting in the Golden Age (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Antwerp, Hessenhuis Museum) (Zwolle, 1994), 368; and Marjorie E.
Wieseman, Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery of Art,
2013) (London, 2013), 74.
14. Marjorie E. Wieseman, Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure (Exh. cat. London, National
Gallery of Art, 2013) (London, 2013), 14–15.
15. Joseph Taylor, who visited Rotterdam in September 1707, recalled, “When I went to wait on her, I wascarried up on a noble marble staircase through a long dining-room paved with excellent marble and hungwith Indian satin and adorned with curious china. And then through another room into the withdrawing
room, where the lady was playing upon a harpsichord. It is impossible to tell you how I was delighted
with her genteel reception, which was mixed with such an air of modesty and freedom that she appeared
inexpressibly charming. After I heard her sing several Latin, Italian, French, and English songs, andenjoyed the pleasure of a most engaging conversation, I retired home, melancholy at the thoughts ofbeing so soon deprived of it.” Cornelis Daniël van Strien, Touring the Low Countries: Accounts of British
Travelers, 1660–1720 (Amsterdam, 1998), as cited in Marjorie E. Wieseman, “Inviting Duets,”
in Vermeer and the Masters of Dutch Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer,
Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre Museum; Dublin, National Galleryof Ireland; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2017), 135.
16. “Pour Chasser Le Chagrin Et La Melancolie, De Cet Aimable Lieu: Je joue De Clavessin: C’est Ainsi Que
Je Passe Tranquillement La Vie Sans Crainte Et Sans Souci Du Sort Ni Du Destin.”
17. The etching after A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord forms part of a series of (at least) twenty-two
reproductive prints by Cornelis-Henricus van Meurs after paintings by Leiden fijnschilders, including
Dou, Frans van Mieris, and Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84). None of these etchings are dated, but manyof them depict paintings that were sold in Brussels between 1738 and 1740. Gerdien Wuestman has
suggested that Van Meurs probably saw these paintings some years earlier, perhaps already in the 1720s.
Nevertheless, the etchings must have been executed before 1743, the year in which the Brussels
publisher Michael Franciscus Vermeren included impressions from Van Meurs’s copperplates in his
moralizing book Den theater des bedroghs, ofte De listige onstantvastigheyt des werelts: Voerende voor
iaer-schryvende sinnebeelden; voor desen noyt gedruckt in onse Neder-lantsche taele; verciert met veleschooner kopere plaeten (Brussels, 1743). A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord appears on page 29. See© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Gerdien Wuestman, “C.H. van Meurs and His fijnschilder Prints: A Mysterious Printmaker with a
Forgotten Oeuvre,” Simiolus 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 118–40.
18. A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord can probably be identified with Un tableau de Girardau,
representant une jeune fille, qui joue de l’Epinette, no. 46 in the sale of Joseph Sansot’s collection in
Brussels on 20 July 1739. The painting sold for 11,15 guilders to an unknown buyer. Van Meurs also
made etchings after five other paintings that were sold in Brussels in 1739 and 1740. See Gerdien
Wuestman, “C.H. van Meurs and His fijnschilder Prints: A Mysterious Printmaker with a Forgotten
Oeuvre,” Simiolus 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 125n29.
19. “Chez M. le Maréchal d’Issenghien, une jeune Femme qui touche du Clavecin.” Jean Baptiste Decamps, Lavie des peintres flamands, allemands, et hollandaise: Avec des portrait graves en taille-douce, une
indication de leurs principaux ouvrages et des réflexions sur leurs différentes manières (Paris, 1754), 2:
225. The possibility that the painting in the Prince of Isenghien’s collection can be identified with A
Young Woman Playing a Clavichord has not been considered by scholars. See also note 12.
20. It is not known where Frederick the Great acquired Dou’s painting. He had a vast network of dealers
who purchased paintings for him across Europe in this period, and unfortunately no documentation
survives for his acquisition of this work. I am grateful to Alexandra Nina Bauer at the StiftungPreussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg for her kind assistance with further research
regarding the provenance. The acquisition of Dou’s painting by Frederick the Great and its subsequent
provenance in the Hohenzollern family was provided by the previous owner and shared by Christie’s. I
would like to thank Caroline Van Cauwenberge for her assistance in compiling the painting’s
provenance, as well as her contributions to its broader research.
Frederick the Great often exchanged paintings between the displays of the Picture Gallery and theNeues Palais, so it is likely that Dou’s painting may first have hung in the former and later was moved to
the galleries in the Neues Palais, where it was recorded in 1773. See Matthias Oesterreich, Inspektors der
großen Könglichen Bilder-Gallerie zu Sans-Souci, Beschreibung alle Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer
kostbarer und merkwürdiger Sachen, so in denen beyden Schlößern von Sans-Souci, wie auch in dem
Schloße zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg enthalten sind (Berlin, 1773), 26, no. 73; and Gerd Bartoschek,
Die Gemälde im Neuen Palais (Potsdam, 1976), 41. An excellent discussion of Frederick the Great’scollecting is in Alexandra Nina Bauer and Franziska Windt, “Die Suche dem Schönen: Das
friderizianische Konzept der Gemäldehängung in der Bildergalerie von Sanssouci zwischen königlicher
Repräsentation

undSelbstdarstellung,”

in

Die

Bildergalerie

Fridrichs

desGrossen.

Geschichte—Kontext—Bedeutung, ed. Franziska Windt (Berlin, 2015), 197–240; for the Netherlandish
paintings especially, 197–217.
21. The Neues Palais accommodated Frederick’s growing collection and continued the principles that had
guided the Picture Gallery. The painting hung in cabinet no. 5, together with a Cleopatra by Guido Reni,
A Boy Fishing by Godefridus Schalcken, and a Rinaldo and Armida by Nicholas Poussin. This cabinet
was located in one of the many picture galleries in the emperor’s apartments in the Neues Palais.
Matthias Oesterreich, Inspektors der großen Könglichen Bilder-Gallerie zu Sans-Souci, Beschreibung alle
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer kostbarer und merkwürdiger Sachen, so in denen beyden Schlößern
von Sans-Souci, wie auch in dem Schloße zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg enthalten sind (Berlin, 1773),
26–27.
22. Matthias Oesterreich, Inspektors der großen Könglichen Bilder-Gallerie zu Sans-Souci, Beschreibung alle
Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer kostbarer und merkwürdiger Sachen, so in denen beyden Schlößern
von Sans-Souci, wie auch in dem Schloße zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg enthalten sind (Berlin, 1773),
26, no. 73.
23. This information was provided by the previous owners of the painting. Following the end of World War
I, Wilhelm II was forced into exile with the disintegration of the German Empire. Part of the collection
went with him to Huis Doorn, the Netherlands; in the inventory of this collection from 1927, A Young
Woman Playing a Clavichord is listed as hanging in the smoking room with the Emperor’s collection of
French paintings (inv. no. 14 and cat. no. 5122). The painting remained with the private familycollection following an agreement between the state of Prussia and Hohenzollern family in 1926.
24. After the emperor’s death in 1941, the painting was taken to the palace of Cecilienhof in Potsdam, thento Oels, and in 1944, to Burg Hohenzollern. It has since remained out of public view and has been
inaccessible to scholars. Its last whereabouts mentioned in the literature is with Prince Louis Ferdinandof Prussia, who died in 1994. It subsequently passed by descent to his children until its acquisition by
the present collector.
25. In March 2021, the painting underwent technical study at Winterthur’s Scientific Research andAnalytical Laboratory. X-radiography, infrared reflectography, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and macrophotography (Hirox microscopy) were performed.
26. After removing the stone archway, Dou repositioned the woman further to the left and adjusted theposition of her right arm, as well as the folds of the jacket. These changes help to explain the transparent
quality of the woman’s white apron. Dou must have shifted the table further to the left during thepainting process, which, over time, has led to the original red carpet being exposed beneath it.
The thin application of the paint layers may have led to these earlier iterations becoming visible overtime. Traces of Dou’s compositional changes are evident in other works from this period, including
Lady at Her Toilet, 1667 (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam), where he changed the positionof the woman’s chair and the birdcage and also first included, and then removed, a garment hanging overthe chair in the foreground. Annetje Boersma, “Dou’s Painting Technique: An Examination of Two
Paintings,” in 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), 57.
27. An earlier restorer may have erroneously tried to strengthen the outlines of the vase at some point,
which may account for its ghostly outlines still visible today. The vase is not present in Van Meurs’s
etching, which indicates that he saw the present composition. Dou made a similar adjustment to thepearl necklace worn by the sitter in Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1655 (National Gallery, London).
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28. Dou’s working method has been discussed by a number of scholars, among them: Luuk Struick van der
Loeff and Karin Groen, “The Restoration and Technical Examination of Gerard Dou’s Young Mother inthe Mauritshuis,” in ICOM Committee for Conservation: 10th Triennial Meeting, Washington, DC, ed.
Janet Bridgeland (Lawrence, Kansas, 1993), 98–103; Annetje Boersma, “Dou’s Painting Technique: An
Examination of Two Paintings,” in 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), 57–58; and Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, andJohn Twilley, “Insights from Technical Analysis on a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in The Leiden
Collection,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014), DOI:
10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
29. In Old Woman at a Window with a Candle, the woman originally held an oil lamp, and the birdcage waspositioned lower in the frame in order to be the focus of her attention. Although Dou replaced this withthe candle, the lighting on the woman’s face reflects the lamp’s original position. In the latter painting,
Dou first positioned the sitter within a stone archway, its subsequent removal prompting him to shift the
woman slightly to the left in order to accommodate the revised composition. There are many otherexamples; see Annetje Boersma, “Dou’s Painting Technique: An Examination of Two Paintings,”
in 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), 57–58; and Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley, “Insightsfrom Technical Analysis on a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in The Leiden Collection,” Journal of
Historians of Netherlandish Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
30. The handling of the face is characteristic of Dou; see the technical report on file in The Leiden
Collection archives, and Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley, “Insights from TechnicalAnalysis on a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in The Leiden Collection,” Journal of Historians ofNetherlandish Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 18–19, DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
31. Notably, early sources describe the woman in the Leiden Collection painting as wearing a jacket with a“grayish hue.” See John Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters (London, 1842), no. 50; and Wilhelm Martin, Het Leven en de
Werken van Gerrit Dou (Leiden, 1901), no. 236.
32. XRF analysis identified the presence of orpiment and vivianite, as well as trace amounts of azurite, zinc,and yellow lake in the upper layers of the jacket. Dou also likely used bituminous pigments, such as
Cassel earth, which may have contributed to the crack formation in darker passages in the background.
Bitumen, as well as indigo and lapis, cannot be detected through the use of XRF. The technical report is
kept on file in the Leiden Collection archives. I would like to thank Kristen deGhetaldi, as well as
graduate students Magdalena Solano and Katie Rovito, who contributed to the report on the results of
the XRF analysis.
33. High-resolution imaging performed with the Hirox microscope on areas of the woman’s jacket indicatesthe artist applied a yellowish glaze containing orpiment over much of the coat. This layering is consistent© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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with previous findings for The Leiden Collection’s Scholar Interrupted at His Writing. Cross-sectional
pigment analysis on areas of this latter painting showed that Dou applied a yellow glaze over several
layers of different blue pigments, including vivianite, indigo, and azurite, which have been shown to
discolor or fade over time. This layering of pigments is characteristic of Dou’s technique over the courseof his career and has resulted in other cases of this kind of color change. A similar discoloration of blue
paint into a pale gray occurs in Dou’s The Young Mother, 1658 (Mauritshuis, The Hague). See Annetje
Boersma, “Dou’s Painting Technique: An Examination of Two Paintings,” in 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),
54–63; and Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley, “Insights from Technical Analysis on
a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in The Leiden Collection,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish
Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
34. For compositional changes Dou made to the jacket, see discussion above and note 26.
35. A comparable example of Dou’s handling of fur trim may be seen in Portrait of a Young Woman, ca.
1655 (National Gallery, London). However, the differences in the brushwork are evident in the more
integrated strokes of fur, which overlap more naturalistically with one another in the National Gallery
painting. I would like to thank Kristen deGhetaldi, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., and Melanie Gifford forsharing their thoughts on the handling of Dou’s fur. See also J. Wadum, “‘Dou Doesn’t Paint, Oh No, He
Juggles with His Brush’: Gerrit Dou—A Rembrandtesque Fijnschilder,” Art Matters 1 (2002): 62–77.
36. There is no evidence that Dou collaborated with pupils in his studio, nor that he routinely left works
unfinished, thus making it difficult to reach a clearer hypothesis at this stage of research. Nevertheless,during the 1660s, Dou had several pupils, including Pieter van Slingelandt (1640–91), Godefridus
Schalcken, and (possibly) his nephew Domenicus van Tol (ca. 1635–76).
37. The panel is beveled on all sides, but the thinnest areas are located directly above the rounded top
corners, possibly where it would have been cut down. The overall average thickness of the beveled edge
is about .32 cm. The wood has a vertical grain. The first mention of the painting having rounded upper
corners is in John Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch,
Flemish, and French Painters (London, 1842), no. 50.
38. Van Meurs is known to have rendered arched compositions by other fijnschilders in rectangular formats,but it is not clear whether he made these changes himself or worked from painted copies that had
already been modified. It is possible that Van Meurs made his print after the painted copy of Dou’s
work, but, for the various reasons discussed above, it seems more probable that Van Meurs saw Dou’s
original painting. See Gerdien Wuestman, “C.H. van Meurs and His Fijnschilder Prints: A Mysterious
Printmaker with a Forgotten Oeuvre,” Simiolus 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 118.
39. It is worth noting that the top section in the painted copy is larger than that in Van Meurs’s print. The
copy, which has been dated to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, was previously attributed
to Domenicus van Tol; see the object record for the copy at the RKD—Netherlands Institute for Art
History, http://rkd.nl/explore/images/287805. Ronni Baer has noted that, while Dou did not make copies© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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after his own paintings, the fact that contemporary copies exist suggests he may have employed his
students to duplicate his more popular compositions. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou(1613–1675),” (PhD diss., New York University, 1990), 1: 82–83.
40. For another instance of a panel reduction in The Leiden Collection, see the entry on Rembrandt’s(1606–69) Bust of a Young Bearded Man.
41. Perplexingly, in 1938, the published dimensions of the painting changed from 38 x 30.5 cm to 32 x 24.5
cm, which correspond more closely to the painting’s current measurements (33.5 x 25.3 cm). No
published dimensions appear after this date. See Tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit particulier bezit in staden provincie (Exh. cat. Utrecht, Centraal Museum) (Utrecht, 1938), no. 116. Since the painting alreadyhad rounded corners by at least 1842 (see note 37), the change in measurements cannot be related to theadjustments made to the panel’s shape. It is possible, then, that the measurements that appear in theearlier sources are incorrect, or they include an additional framing element.
42. Régence period frames refer to a period of style and production in France under Louis XV from 1715 to1723. Deborah Davis, The Secret Lives of Frames: One Hundred Years of Art and Artistry (New York,
2007).
43. Frederick the Great employed the artist Johann Melchoir Kambly (1718–83), among others, to designand execute frames for his growing collection for the main Picture Gallery of Sanssouci. A uniform
model did not exist, however, and not all frames were designed specifically for these purposes; somepaintings hung in the frames from which they were purchased, predominantly carved and gilded
eighteenth-century frames, which was likely the case for A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord. I would
like to thank Carsten Dilba and Katja Wendler from the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten for
their generous help in identifying the style and period of the frame for Dou’s painting. They also
identified an identical frame in the Rheinsberg Palace collection that belongs to the work of an unknown
seventeenth-century painter. The scene depicts an elegant woman with her servant. Correspondence
from January 2021 on file at The Leiden Collection. See also Carsten Dilba and Franziska Windt, “Die
Gemälderahmen der Bildergalerie von Sanssouci,” in Die Bildergalerie Fridrichs des Grossen.
Geschichte—Kontext—Bedeutung, ed. Franziska Windt (Berlin, 2015), 257–80.
44. I would like to thank Alexandra Nina Bauer for sharing this information about the frame from theinventories of the Neues Palais.
45. Bret Headley of Headley Conservation Services, LLC, Philadelphia restored the frame in 2021.

ProvenancePossibly Johan de Bye, Leiden, by 1665.[1]Possibly Joseph Sansot, Lille (his sale, Brussels, 20 July 1739, no. 46, for 11.15 guilders).
Possibly Louis de Gand de Mérode de Montmorency (1678–1767), Prince of Isenghien, by 1754.
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Frederick the Great (1712–86), Picture Gallery and Neues Palais, Sanssouci Palace, Potsdam, by 1763;
and by descent (private sale, Christie’s, New York, 2020).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2020.

Provenance Notes

1. Gerrit Dou’s Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage and Gerrit Dou’s Goat in a Landscape,both now in The Leiden Collection, were also formerly in the collection of Johan de Bye.

Exhibition History
Possibly Leiden, front room in the house of Johannes Hannot on the Breestraat, September 1665 [lentby Johan de Bye].
Utrecht, Centraal Museum Utrecht, “Tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit particulier bezit in stad enprovincie,” 2 July–15 September 1938, no. 116 [lent by Emperor Wilhelm II].

References
Possibly Descamps, Jean Baptiste. La vie des peintres flamands, allemands, et hollandais: Avec desportraits gravés en taille-douce, une indication de leurs principaux ouvrages et des réflexions sur leursdifférentes manières. Paris, 1754, 2: 225.
Oesterreich, Matthias. Inspektors der groβen Königlichen Bilder-Gallerie zu Sans-Souci, Beschreibung alle
Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer kostbarer und merkwürdiger Sachen, so in denen beyden Schlöβern
von Sans-Souci, wie auch in dem Schloβe zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg enthalten sind. Berlin, 1773, 26,
no. 73.
Oesterreich, Matthias. Description de tout l’intérieur des deux palais de Sans-Souci, de ceux de Potsdam, etde Charlottenbourg; contenant l’explication de tous les tableaux comme aussi des antiquités et d’autreschoses précieuses et remarquables. Potsdam, 1773, 32, no. 73.
Smith, John. Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, andFrench Painters. London, 1842, 17, no. 50.
Martin, Wilhelm. “Leven en werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven vanzijn tijd.” PhD diss., Leiden University, 1901, 218, no. 236.
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. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke.
London, 1907, 1: 390, no. 133b.
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A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Martin, Wilhelm. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben. Vol. 24, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde i
247 Abbildungen. Stuttgart, 1913, 97.
Centraal Museum Utrecht. Tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit particulier bezit in stad en provincie.
Utrecht, 1938, 21, no. 116.
Bartoschek, Gerd. Die Gemälde im Neuen Palais. Postdam, 1976, 41, no. 73.
Van Dijck, Lucas, and Ton Koopman. Het Klavecimbel in de Nederlandse Kunst tot 1800 / The
Hapsichord in Dutch Art before 1800. Zutphen, 1987, no. 130.
Lunsigh Scheurleer, Theodoor Hermann, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds. Het
Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse Gracht. Leiden, 1988, 3b: 486, no. 23.
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675).” PhD diss., New York University, 1990, 3: 3,
no. C67.
Wuestman, Gerdien. “C.H. van Meurs and His Fijnschilder Prints: A Mysterious Printmaker with a
Forgotten Oeuvre.” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 125n29,
127, 135, no. 14.
Jonker, Michiel, and Ellinoor Bergvelt. Dutch and Flemish Paintings: Dulwich Picture Gallery. London,
2016, 73n4, 73n14 (as by a pupil of Gerrit Dou).
Jonker, Michiel, and Ellinoor Bergvelt. Dulwich Picture Gallery: Catalogue of the Dutch, Flemish andGerman Schools, with Addenda to the British Schools. Vol. 1, A–N. RKD Studies. The Hague, 2021,
under

no.

DPG56.

http://dulwich-picture-gallery-i.rkdstudies.nl/cuyp-dou/gerard-dou/(accessed

December 7, 2021).

Versions
Painted Versions
1. After Gerrit Dou, Girl Playing a Virginal, 1665–99, 33 x 27.5 cm, oil on panel, Essex County Council,
Chelmsford Shire Hall, England, inv. no. 10.

2. After Gerrit Dou, A Young Lady Playing at a Harpsichord, oil on panel, 33.3 x 26.8 cm, previous sale,
Phillips, London, 2 July 1991, no. 299.

3. Gerrit Dou, A Young Woman Playing a Virginal, oil on panel, 35 x 28.5 cm, previously HochschildCollection.

Print
1. Cornelis-Henricus van Meurs (b. 1680), after Gerrit Dou, A Young Woman Playing the Clavichord,etching and engraving on paper, 317 x 269 mm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. RP-P-1908-292.[1]© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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Versions Notes

1. Cornelis-Henricus van Meurs also etched the following paintings in The Leiden Collection: Frans van
Mieris, Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table, probably 1676; Caspar Netscher, Lucretia, ca.
1665–67; and Frans van Mieris, Death of Lucretia, 1679.

Technical Summary
The wooden support is a singular piece of oak that is arched along the top with the grain oriented vertically.[1]Examining the reverse of the picture reveals that all four edges are beveled. The bevel along the curved edge
is burnished and patinaed, indicating that the panel has retained this particular format for some time;
however, it is possible that the panel was cut down at some point.
Based on the characterization of cross sections collected from other pictures by Dou and his circle, theground is likely composed primarily of chalk bound in glue.[2] Infrared (IR) photography reveals traces of
fluid brown-black strokes beneath the white chemise and fur trim along the bodice, as well as additional
strokes beneath the sitter’s right arm; these strokes may correspond to a section of the underdrawing that wasnever fully covered with paint but was instead allowed to remain during the final stages of the composition.
Both the IR photograph and the X-radiograph demonstrate that the panel has undergone a rather complex
progression in terms of compositional development. Throughout the lower paint layers, several fine diagonal
scratches extend from just above the sitter’s head through the face and torso and continue all the way to thebottom edge of the picture. As these markings appear white, or more radio-opaque, in the X-radiograph, it ispossible that an earlier composition was scraped down and the resulting scratches and grooves covered with athin application of an imprimatura.
Other notable changes include a repositioning of the pearl necklace, the folds of the sitter’s dress, and the red
cloth. Perhaps the most dramatic alteration to the composition was the overpainting of an arched niche orwindow that originally framed the sitter, along with additional objects (what may be a bird, a lantern, andglassware). Finally, there are two puzzling, small, circular marks in the X-radiograph located near the radioopaque “halo” of paint surrounding the sitter’s head; these artifacts, combined with the presence of the
diagonal markings, further support the notion that this picture was heavily reworked over an extended periodof time.
Macrophotographs obtained from thinly painted areas, such as the sitter’s face, indicate that theunderpainting / initial toning layer likely contains a mixture of lead white, chalk, earth pigments, and/or
carbon black. These pigments were admixed in order to create a slightly cooler tone characteristic of thelatter part of Dou’s career, which supports the proposed date of the picture.[3]The palette and paint handling observed throughout the picture are consistent with those encountered in otherworks by Dou. The depiction of the white fur trim is realized with hatched strokes of thick paint, while amore pointillistic technique has been used on the red carpet at bottom left.[4] The hair has been painted with© 2024 The Leiden Collection

A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord
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carefully delineated strokes of paint that echo the color of the mid-tones used in the flesh. The strings of theclavichord have also been executed with extreme care, using lightly pigmented strokes containing carbon
black, a technique similar to that used in other works to emulate fine text and imagery on the opened pagesof books and manuscripts. Nondestructive pigment analysis identified lead white, vermillion, earth colors,
lead-tin yellow, chalk, vivianite, azurite, and orpiment. Degradation of vivianite as well as orpiment may
account for the confused appearance of portions of the sitter’s blue-green coat.
Overall, the wooden support, ground, and paint layers appear stable and are in good condition. Some areas of
the composition, most noticeably in the background of the upper-right quadrant, exhibit pronounced
craquelure that is readily visible when the picture is viewed in partial raking light. In addition, slight ridges in
the paint can also be seen in raking light beneath the sitter’s left arm and in an area directly above her rightarm, suggesting extensive repainting or reworking in these areas. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals
only minor, scattered losses; however, there is also evidence that portions of the painting were left partially or
minimally cleaned. It is possible that this is a result of previous restoration campaigns combined with Dou’s
occasional tendency to overpaint elements of his own work. While some of the varnish layer(s) may not be
intact, the overall sheen of the surface is fairly even.
– Kristin deGhetaldi, 2022

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Dendrochronological dating has yet to be carried out on the panel support. Analysis performed on Dou’s
paintings that were created later in his career reveal that he typically used Baltic oak from trees yielding
felling dates that are considerably earlier than the creation of the paintings. See Annetje Boersma,“Dou’s Painting Technique: An Examination of Two Paintings,” in 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), 58.
2. At the time of this report, cross-sectional analysis has yet to be performed on A Young Woman Playing a
Clavichord.
3. The nature of Dou’s underpainting (also referred to as “dead-coloring”) changed over the course of his
career. Earlier pictures have been found to possess a warmer, brown tone, while later pictures tend tohave a cooler, grayer appearance. See: Annetje Boersma, “Dou’s Painting Technique: An Examinationof Two Paintings,” in 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), 54–63; Jørgen Wadum, “Dou doesn’t paint, oh no, he juggles
with his brush. Gerrit Dou a Rembrandtesque ‘Fijnschilder’,” in Art Matters, ed. Erma Hermens (Zwolle,
2002), 62–77; Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley, “Insights from Technical Analysis
on a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish
Art 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 1–49. DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3; Luuk Struik van der Loeff and Karen
Groen, “The Restoration and Technical Examination of Gerard Dou’s ‘The Young Mother’ in the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Mauritshuis’,” In 10th Triennial Meeting, Washington, DC, USA, 22-27 August 1993: Preprints, ed. Janet
Bridgeland (Paris, 1933), 1: 98–103.
4. A number of carpets depicted in Dou’s oeuvre demonstrate the use of pointillistic highlights to represent
the weave pile, including The Violin Player, 1653 (Princely Collections, Liechtenstein); The Doctor, ca.
1660–65 (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen); Self-Portrait at Age Fifty, 1663 (The NelsonAtkins Museum of Arts, Kansas City); A Woman Playing a Clavichord, ca. 1665 (Dulwich Picture
Gallery, London); and A Young Woman at Her Toilet, 1667 (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen,Rotterdam).

© 2024 The Leiden Collection