© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music
Book on Her Lap

ca. 1640–44
oil on panel
27.2 x 20 cm
signed in dark paint along book edge, lower
right: “GDov” (GD in ligature)
GD-116Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nded.

EditedbyArthurK.

WheelockJr.

NewYork,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-a-lady-seated-with-a-music-book-on-her-lap/ (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

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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Gerrit Dou’s small-scale portrait of this well-to-do young lady conveys much

Comparative Figures

about her interests, values, and social class. Her tasteful jewelry and dress,
as well as the open music book in her lap, suggest that she comes from awealthy family from among Leiden’s literate circles. Her elegant attire
consists of a three-tiered white linen neckerchief around her shoulders, withlace trim and matching lace cuffs that adorn her bracelet-length sleeves. She
wears a high-necked white collar with several thin strands of gold beading,and an ornamental black stomacher accented with a bow from which hangs
a single black pearl. This fashionable ensemble was current during the early
1640s and was also worn by ladies in Haarlem and Amsterdam, as seen, forexample, in Frans Hals’s (1582/83–1666) Portrait of a Woman with a Fan ofca. 1640 in the National Gallery, London, and Rembrandt van Rijn’s(1606–69) Portrait of Agatha Bas from 1642 in the British Royal Collection (fig 1).[1] Like Agatha Bas’s fashionable dress, the ensemble of the present
sitter features an amber-colored satin skirt with gold embroidery thatFig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Portraitof Agatha Bas, 1641, oil oncanvas, 105.5 x 83.9 cm, TheRoyal Collection, London, RoyalCollection Trust, © 2014 HerMajesty Queen Elizabeth IIcontrasts with her black outer gown. The scale of her lacework is much lessbold and her accessories less ostentatious than that of her Haarlem andAmsterdam counterparts, indicating her more conservative taste. In keepingwith her reserved demeanor, she wears her hair tied back in a traditional
hairdo with a matching lace headdress that covers her ears and extends tothe sides of her face.
Based on her dress style, Baer dates the present portrait to ca.
1640–44.[2] Another closely related painting is Dou’s Portrait of a Lady (fig 2)[3]. In both of these works, Dou situated the woman in a simple interior spacenear a table with books and softened the scene with a deep reddish-browncurtain hanging above and to the left of the sitter. The present painting also
includes a staircase and column at the left, which help to define the interior
space of the room. The additional illumination from the left of this column

Fig 2. Gerrit Dou, Portrait of aLady, ca. 1635–40, oil on panel,
49.2 x 38.7 cm, The Norton Simon
Foundation, Pasadena, California,
inv. no. F.1969.43.P, © 2012 The
Norton Simon Foundation

also creates a play of light and shadow along the back wall, against which
the lady is contrasted.
An X-radiograph indicates that the rectangular composition was initiallyconceived with an arched top. The greater visibility of the arch along theupper right-hand side coincides with the direction of the light that falls onto
this area and accounts for the greater content of lead white in the underlying
paint (fig 3). Pentimenti along the figure’s face, right arm, and shoulder seenin the X-radiograph, moreover, indicate that Dou initially positioned the sitter
centrally beneath the painted arch and later shifted her to the right by about
one centimeter, possibly when he modified the arched-top format and added© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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the curtain to balance the composition. A similar combination is found inDou’s Self-Portrait in a private collection in Spain, as well as in his Painterwith a Pipe and Book in the Rijksmuseum, both from about 1645.[4] The
conventional format of the present portrait suggests that the sitter was
married and that Dou most likely originally painted her portrait with a malependant, placing the woman on the heraldic left. The ring on her left hand,which Dou executed with only a few strokes of paint, is probably a wedding
ring.[5]The books with which she is engaged suggest that she is a pious andeducated individual. The ornamental clasp and gold detailing on the standing
book on the table are characteristic of a Bible, while the open music book on

Fig 3. X-radiograph of GD-116

her lap, which she actively thumbs as if to turn a page, indicates her
proficiency in reading music. The musical notation of the book contains four
staffs per page and is written with some beamed eighth and sixteenth notes,
which would have been typical of a secular piece. The worn condition of thepaint in this area, however, makes it impossible to determine whether themusical notation was once an identifiable song.
The paint surface is even and smooth, with visibly raised thicker paintthroughout the elaborate detail work and highlights. These areas include theornamental lace trim of the sitter’s collar, the golden brocade along thecenter of her skirt, and the sparse highlights applied to her headdress as wellFig 4. Detail of brushwork in thewoman’s hairand forehead, Portrait of a Lady,
Seated with a Music Book on Her
Lap, GD-116

as to the bindings of the books on the table. Extremely fine brushstrokes,
especially in the stray curly hairs framing the sitter’s face, indicate that theartist used a single, fine bristle for the application of the paint (fig 4). ThoughDou’s polished handling of the brushwork in this portrait matches therefinement of the sitter, the treatment of her hair is reminiscent of the artist’smuch looser handling of a peasant woman’s hair in the A Young Woman in
Cleveland from about the same time (fig 5), a comparison that underscores
the artist’s great versatility in brushwork depending on the formality of thesubject matter.

Fig 5. Detail of brushwork in thewoman’s hair and forehead, GerritDou, A Young Woman, ca. 1640,
oil on panel, 35 x 31 cm, The
Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequestof William G. Mather, 1951.325- Domique Surh, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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1. See Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings(Amsterdam, 2006).
2. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New YorkUniversity, 1990), no. 34.
3. For the Norton Simon painting, see Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),”
3 vols. (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), no. 35; Amy Walsh, Northern European
Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum (New Haven, forthcoming), no. 20.
4. Illustrated in Ronni Baer, 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) (Washington D.C., 2000), nos. 14, 16; seealso no. 7.
5. Eddy De Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw (Zwolle, 1986), 138–40.

Provenance(Sale, D. de Jongh, Rotterdam, 26 March 1810, no. 28 [to Le Brun for 505 f.]; sale, Lebrun,
Paris, 16 April 1811, no. 112 [to Ballatre for 1450 frs.]).
Sir George Hunter Donaldson (1845–1925), London, until 1911; [Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris,1911].
[Duits & Co., Ltd., London, by 1948, to Mr. R. A. Constantine, February 1948].
Mr. R. A. Constantine, Yorkshire, until after 1960.
[Martin B. Ascher, London, before 1970] (sale, Christie’s, London, 14 May 1971, no. 129, for
7500 gns., to A. Brod [Alfred Brod Gallery, London]).
Private collection, Germany [Charles Roelofsz, Amsterdam, 1982; Kunstandel P. de Boer,Amsterdam, 1983; French & Company, New York, 1983–85].
H. L. de Villeneuve, by 1985 until 2009.
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2009.

Exhibition History© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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Middlesbrough, Municipal Art Gallery, “Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Masters of theSixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” 28 September–22 October 1949, no. 31 [lent by theConstantine family].
Scarborough, Municipal Art Gallery, “Dutch and Flemish Masters from the Collection of Mrs.
R. A. Constantine and Family,” June 1960, no. 28 [lent by the Constantine family].
Norfolk, Virginia, Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, June2009–July 2011 [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].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby 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 presentowner].
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].

References
Martin, Wilhelm. “Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het
schildersleven van zijn tijd.” PhD diss. Universiteit Leiden. Leiden, 1901, no. 210.
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 translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 1: 375, no. 97. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally publishedas Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Sedelmeyer, Charles. Illustrated Catalogue of the Eleventh Series of 100 Paintings by Old
Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English Schools. Sales cat. SedelmeyerGallery. Paris, 1911, 10, no. 6.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap
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Middlesbrough Municipal Art Gallery. Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Masters of theSixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.

Exh. cat. Middlesbrough, Municipal Art Gallery.

Middlesbrough, 1949.
Scarborough Municipal Art Gallery. Dutch and Flemish Masters from the Collection of Mrs. R.
A. Constantine and Family. Exh. cat. Scarborough, Municipal Art Gallery. Scarborough, 1960,no. 28.
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675).” 3 vols. PhD diss. New York
University, 1990, no. 34.
Franits, Wayne. Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch
Art. New Haven and London, 1993, 19–20.
Surh, Dominique, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley. “Insights from Technical Analysis on aGroup of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” JHNA 6:1 (Winter 2014): 2-4, 8-9,11, 21-22, figs. 6a-b, 18-20, 60a-b. DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap”.
In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara YeagerCrasselt, 88–89; 180, no. 34. Translated by Li Ying. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 108–9.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Lady, Seated with a Music Book on Her Lap.” In The Ageof Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina
Lyubimova, 84–85; 233, no. 9. 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.
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch GoldenAge. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 144, no. 66. [Exhibition catalogue also published inFrench and Arabic.]

Technical Summary
The painting was executed on a panel made from a single plank of vertically grained oak.
Dendrochronology indicates the tree was felled after 1614.[1] The back of the panel is not beveledand it bears rough tool marks. This could be an indication that it has been thinned. Remnants ofthree metal brads along the top edge indicate that at some point a shim was probably attached tothe top edge.
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The light-colored ground was thinly and evenly applied. It is radio-opaque, accentuating thewoodgrain in the X-radiograph. The paint was built up in successive, thin layers. The X-radiographshows that originally the composition was arched on the top. It also indicates that the sitter’s bodymay originally have been situated slightly to the left of its current position. Infrared
reflectography[2] indicates that the contours of the drapery were changed. Both swags wereraised, the left swag more so than the right, and the drapery may have hung down on the right,
similar to the way it does so on the left.
The painting is in very good condition. The panel has a slight convex warp and the paint in thecurtains exhibits some traction crackle. The painting underwent minor treatment in 2009.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Ian Tyers, dendrochronological report, November 2010.
2. Infrared reflectography was performed at unknown parameters.

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