Goat in a Landscapeca. 1660–65

Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

oil on panel
19.6 x 24.9 cm
signed in brown paint on a rock, lower center:“GDOU” (GD in ligature)
GD-114Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Surh, Dominique. "Goat in a Landscape." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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Few goats have ever been featured as the primary subject of a painting,Comparative Figuresand certainly none has the whimsical personality of this one. Part of thegoat’s charm as it looks out at the viewer with a combination of curiosityand patience, is its lackadaisical pose, with one front leg stretched out andone bent back. This unusual animal, which has black wool covering its
head and neck and white on the rest of its body, is not a figment of Gerrit
Dou’s imagination but an actual breed known as the Bagot Goat. How Dou
came across such an exotic beast, which roamed the English countrysidenear Staffordshire, is not known, but its fascinating appearance clearly
intrigued him and must have induced him to create this intriguing small
panel painting.[1]Fig 1. Detail of infrared
photograph of GD-114, showing
the changes made around theposition of the goat’s headDou undoubtedly based this image of a goat on a live model, but he also
thought carefully about how he wanted the goat to appear in his painting.
X-radiographs and infrared reflectograms indicate that he initially depicted
the head in profile and then changed it to a frontal view during the paintprocess [(fig 1) and (fig 2)].[2] In devising the goat’s pose, Dou seems also
to have consulted an engraving of a recumbent goat (although of adifferent breed) by Marcus de Bije (1639–ca. 1690) (fig 3). The goat in De

Fig 2. X-radiograph of GD-114

Bije’s print, based on a drawing by Paulus Potter (1625–54), also has one
leg extended and one bent back.[3]Dou situated the goat in a clearing between a gnarly tree and a large
burdock plant,[4] an evocative landscape setting that indicates he was not
only interested in portraying this specific animal, but also in alluding tobroader thematic concerns related to the traditional associations of a goatwith lust and promiscuity. This interest is evident in the amorous scene ofa shepherd and shepherdess that Dou introduced on the distant hillside.
Dou based this figural grouping on Pastoral Couple with Goats, anengraving by Boetius Bolswert (ca. 1580–1633) after a design by

Fig 3. Marcus de Bije after
Paulus Potter, Recumbent Goat,
1654–88, engraving, 117 x 147
mm, Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. BdH
1138 (PK), photo: Studio Tromp,
Rotterdam

Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651), in which a half-nude shepherd is also
shown resting his head on his left hand as he embraces his femalecompanion near a herd of goats (fig 4). The burdock plant serves as athematic counterpart to this ancillary scene, for its large vigorous leaves
symbolize fecundity and reinforce the scene’s underlying theme of carnal
desire.[5]The associations of the goat with lust and promiscuity, which go back toclassical antiquity, were also evident in the writings of Karel van Mander

Fig 4. Boetius Bolswert after
Abraham Bloemaert, Pastoral© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
Page 3 of 10(1548–1606). In his Het Schilder-Boeck of 1604, Van Mander described
the goat as unchaste and ruinous, likening this animal, which bites off anddestroys young green buds of plants, to a whore who ruins young

Couple with Goats, 1611,
engraving, 113 x 135 mm, The
British Museum, London,
inv. D,7.151AN457100001, ©
Trustees of the British Museum

men.[6] Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) alluded to the symbolism of lust
associated with goats in his 1616 Fall of Man in the National Gallery of Art,
Washington (fig 5). The goat also appears as a sign of carnal desire inpastoral landscapes such as Paris and Oenone, 1619, by Pieter Lastman(1583–1633), in which a shepherd gropes his bare-breasted companion(fig 6).[8] Pieter Quast (1605/6–47) makes this allusion even more explicit
in his Peasant Interior by depicting a reclining goat next to lovers rolling in
the hay.[9]Dou probably painted Goat in a Landscape during the first half of theFig 5. Hendrick Goltzius, Fall ofMan, 1616, oil on canvas, 104.5 x
138.4 cm, National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C., Patrons’
Permanent Fund, 1996.34.1

1660s, when he executed a number of single-figure nude scenes withsimilar landscape features.[10] One closely related example is Nude
Woman Bather from ca. 1660–65 in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, inwhich a barren tree trunk likewise frames the scene to one side.[11] He
certainly executed it by 1665, when it was included in an exhibition oftwenty-seven of Dou’s paintings owned by the distinguished Leiden
collector Johan de Bye.[12] The painting is listed as one of twenty-two
works each displayed in a case (kas). Some of these cases must haveopened with wings like a triptych, while others probably had a sliding lid;some of the covers of these containers were painted with still life
images.[13] Such a case would have compelled the viewer to come close toFig 6. Pieter Lastman, Paris andOenone, 1619, oil on panel, 48.9
x 71.4 cm, Worcester Art
Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs.
John Adam, inv. no. 1984.39.
Image © Worcester Art Museum,
all rights reserved

the painting to open its doors. The small-scale format and meticulous finish
of Dou’s paintings continue to invite this type of visual intimacy today.[14]Among the works in De Bye’s collection—which included market scenes,
candlelit interiors, nude figures and self-portraits—are two paintings in the
Leiden Collection dating from the early 1660s: not only Goat in a
Landscape but also Young Woman in a Niche with a Parrot and Cage
(GD-105). Interestingly, both of these paintings contain commentaries onhuman sexuality that are conjoined in an engraving that Jacob Matham(1571–1631), made in the 1580s after a design by Goltzius. Matham’s
print, Libido (fig 7), depicts a small bird perched on the finger of a halfnude young woman as she walks next to a goat.[15] It is quite possible that
Dou and De Bye enjoyed this iconographic link between these twopaintings, and brought them together as a delightful reference to thepervasive force of sexual desire in nature.

Fig 7. Jacob Matham after
Hendrick Goltzius, Libido(Luxuria), 1585–89, engraving,
216 x 144 mm,
Rijksprentenkabinet,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
Page 4 of 10-Dominique Surh

RP-P-OB-27.227© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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Endnotes
1. Dou painted two other works that focus on a single animal: Cat Crouching on the Ledgeof an Artist’s Atelier (GD-108), and A Sleeping Dog in the Van Otterloo Collection. For a fullreference list on the Cat, see GD-108; on the Dog, see Frederik J. Duparc, “Sleeping Dog,”
in Golden Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo
Collection (Exh. cat. Salem, Peabody Essex Museum; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Havenand London), 131–33, no. 19. Another four animal subjects are known only througheighteenth- and nineteenth-century sources. See Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou(1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1990), Appendix A-12:A Billy Goat
and Four She-Goats, The Watchdog, and A Butterfly; not mentioned by Baer is a work given
to Dou, A Dead Rabbit, exhibited in Manchester in 1857, from the collection of R. Napier;see Willliam Thoré Bürger, Trésors d’art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant descollections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulis la GrandeBretagne (Paris, 1857), 64, no. 908; 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), 1:462, no. 383.
2. See Technical Summary and John Twilley, “Analysis and Materials Science for the
Preservation of Cultural Property: Scientific Examination of Landscape with a Goat by Gerrit
Dou (GD-114),” unpublished report, 26 February 2013, on file, The Leiden Collection, NewYork.
3. Maarten Jager, Voorkeuren: Een particuliere collectie (Utrecht, 1985), 28–29.
4. In his analysis of the pigments found in GD-114, conservation scientist John Twilley foundthat no green pigments were used in painting this plant, which is currently blue inappearance. Twilley found a very high-quality ultramarine pigment in the uppermost layer ofthe paint, and concluded that Dou must have applied a yellow-pigmented glaze in the final
layers in order to create the appearance of green leaves. See John Twilley, “Analysis andMaterials Science for the Preservation of Cultural Property: Scientific Examination ofLandscape with a Goat by Gerrit Dou (GD-114),” unpublished report, February 26, 2013, on
file, The Leiden Collection, New York.
5. On the symbolism of Arctium lappa, see Guido Jansen, “Bok in een landscap,” in C.
Boschma et al., Meesterilijk vee Nederlandse veeschilders, 1600–1900 (Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Leeuwarden, Fries Museum) (Zwolle, 1988), 189–91, no.
37. On the identification of the pigments used for the plant and the possible loss of yellow
glazing resulting in the bluish coloring, see John Twilley, “Analysis and Materials Science for
the Preservation of Cultural Property: Scientific Examination of Landscape with a Goat byGerrit Dou (GD-114),” unpublished report, 26 February 2013, on file, The Leiden Collection,
New York.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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6. “Met de Geyt, de Satyren oock daer onder begrepen, wort d’onkuysheyt; beteyckent. De
Geyte beteyckent de Hoere, die de jonghe knechten verderft, ghelijck; de Geyt de jonghe
groen spruyten afknaeght en scheyndet.” Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck,
Uitlegghingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. Ovidy Nasionis … (Haarlem, 1604), fol. 129r. For
an English translation, see Hessel Miedema, ed. and trans.,Karel van Mander: The Lives of
the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the First Edition of the SchilderBoeck (1603–1604) (Doornspijk, 1994–99). See also Alison McNeil Kettering, The Dutch
Arcadia: Pastoral Art and Its Audience in the Golden Age (Montclair, 1983), 57.
7. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.’s essay on Hendrick Goltzius’s Fall of Man, in Dutch Paintingsof the Seventeenth Century, National Gallery of Art Online Editions, Washington D.C.
8. Alison McNeil Kettering, The Dutch Arcadia: Pastoral Art and Its Audience in the Golden
Age (Montclair, 1983), esp. 44–58.
9. Peter Sutton, ed., Masters of 17 th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art)
(Boston, 1987), 372–73, no. 55; Guido Jansen, “Bok in een landscap,” in C. Boschma et al.,Meesterlijk vee: Nederlandse veeschilders, 1600–1900 (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts
Museum; Leeuwarden, Fries Museum) (Zwolle, 1988), 189–91, no. 37; Astrid Tümpel andPieter Schatborn, eds., Pieter Lastman: Leermaeester van Rembrandt/Pieter Lastman: The
Man Who Taught Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis)(Amsterdam and Zwolle, 1991), 89; Eric Jan Sluijter, “The Introduction of the Amorous
Shepherd’s Idyll in Dutch Prints and Paintings,” inSeductress of Sight: Studies in Dutch Artof the Golden Age (Zwolle, 2000), 161–97.
10. Dendrochronological analysis was carried out on the present panel in 2010 by Ian Tyers,
who concluded that the oak panel, originating from western Germany and the Low
Countries, derived from a tree that was felled in 1594; see Ian Tyers’s unpublished report on
GD-114, on file, The Leiden Collection, New York.
11. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York
University, 1990), nos. 103–06; Ronni Baer, “Dou’s Nudes,” in Aemulatio: Imitation,
Emulation, and Invention in Netherlandish Art from 1500 to 1800, Essays in Honor of Eric
Jan Sluijter, ed. Anton W. A. Boschloo, Jacquelyn N. Coutré, Stephanie S. Dickie, andNicolette C. Luijter-Seijffert (Zwolle, 2011), 371–81.
12. For the 1665 document, see Lunsingh Scheurleer et al.,Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis vaneen Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (Leiden 1986–92), 3b:486, no. 7. Hofstede de Groot
was the first to associate GD-114 with the painting described in the 1665 document as “1bok en landschap.” See Cornelis Hofstede de Groot,A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of
the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John
Smith, 8 vols. (London, 1907–27), 1:462, no. 385.
13. On the original cases, see Ivan Gaskell, “Gerrit Dou, His Patrons and the Art of Painting,”© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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Oxford Art Journal 5, no. 1 (1982): 19–21; Ronni Baer, “The Wine Cellar,” inGerrit 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), 110, no. 23; Annegret Laabs, “Still Life with a
Candlestick and a Watch,” in The Leiden Fijnschilders from Dresden (exh. cat., Leiden,
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2001), 30–32; Ronni Baer, “Dou’s Nudes,” inAemulatio: Imitation, Emulation, and Invention in Netherlandish Art from 1500 to 1800,
Essays in Honor of Eric Jan Sluijter, ed. Anton W. A. Boschloo, Jacquelyn N. Coutré,
Stephanie S. Dickie, and Nicolette C. Luijter-Seijffert (Zwolle, 2011), 371.
14. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “The Framing of a Vermeer,” inCollected Opinions: Essays on
Netherlandish Art in Honour of Alfred Bader , ed. Volker Manuth and Axel Rüger (London,
2004), 232–39.
15. The underlying inscription announces the destructive force of human sexuality: “Omnia
pervertit veneris vaesana libido iura, fidem, patriam” (The raging fury of love’s desire
overturns everything: law, faith, country). The author would like to thank Dr. David Ratzan for
his translation. On the meaning of the bird, another well-established erotic symbolreferencing sexuality, shown in Libido’s proper right hand, see Eddy de Jongh, “A Bird’s-Eye
View of Erotica: Double Entendre in a Series of Seventeenth-Century Genre Scenes,” inQuestions of Meaning: Theme and Motif in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting , ed. andtrans. M. Hoyle (Leiden, 2000), 22–58, esp. 25ff, fig. 3 (first published as “Erotica invogelsperspectif:

Dedubbelzinnigheid

van

een

reeks

zeventiende-eeuwse

genrevoorstellingen,” Simiolus 3 [1968–69]).

Provenance
Johan de Bye, Leiden, by 1665.
(Sale, 2 April 1803, no. 14 [for 504 frs.]).
De Preuil (sale, Paris, Lebrun, 26 November 1811, no. 65 [to Este for 220 frs.]; sale, Paris,
Lebrun, 2 February 1813, no. 176 [unsold at 150 f.]).
Edward Loyd, by 1857; by descent to M. Lewis Loyd, Monks Orchard, Beckenham, Kent; bydescent to Captain E. N. F. Loyd, Shaw Hill, Melksham, Wiltshire (his sale, London,
Christie’s, 30 April 1937, no. 101 [to Heather for £168]).
Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by 1950 (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2008, no. 46[Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., 2008]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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Exhibition History
Leiden, front room in the house of Johannes Hannot on the Breestraat, September 1665
[lent by Johan de Bye].
Manchester, “The Art Treasures of Great Britain,” 5 May–17 October 1857, no. 1039 [lentby Edward Loyd].
London, Matthiesen Gallery, “Rembrandt’s Influence in the 17th Century,” 20 February–2
April 1953, no. 17 [lent by Dr. Hans Wetzlar].
Paris, Institut Néerlandais, “Bestiaire hollandais,” 1–27 March 1960, no. 64 [lent by Dr. Hans
Wetzlar].
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “Meesterlijk vee: Nederlandse veeschilders, 1600–1900,”
25 September–20 November 1988; Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, 3 December 1988–29
January 1989, no. 37 [lent by Dr. Hans Wetzlar].
Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012 [lent by thepresent 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].

References
Bürger, Willliam Thoré. Trésors d’art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant descollections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulières de la GrandeBretagne. Paris, 1857, 258.
Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom Collected at Manchester in 1857.
Exh. cat. Manchester, Exhibition Hall. London, 1857, 71, no. 1039.
Bürger, Willliam Thoré. Trésors d’art en Angleterre. Brussels, 1860, 258.
Martin, Wilhelm. Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou. Leiden, 1901, no. 359.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:462, no. 385. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts .
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Goat in a Landscape
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10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, sa vie et son oeuvre: Etude sur la peinture hollandaise et lesmarchaunds au dix-septième siècle. Paris, 1911, 209, no. 288.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst. Stuttgart andBerlin, 1913, xviii–xix.
Collection Dr. H. Wetzlar. Amsterdam, 1952, 11, no. 26.
Rembrandt’s Influence in the 17 th Century. Exh. cat. London, Matthiesen Gallery. London,
1953, 13, no. 17.
Bestiaire hollandais: Exposition de tableaux, aquarelles, dessins et gravures par desartistes hollandais des XVII–XVIII siècles et d’un choix de livres de la même periode. Exh.
cat. Paris, Institut Néerlandais. Paris, 1960, 17, no. 64.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau in der Pfalz, 1983–95,
1:538, 603, no. 306.
Jager, Maarten. Voorkeuren: Een particuliere collectie. Utrecht, 1985, 28–29.
Lunsingh Scheurleer et al. Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. 6 vols.
and index. Leiden, 1986–92, 3b:486.
Jansen, Guido. “Bok in een landscap.” In C. Boschma et al. Meesterlijk vee: Nederlandse
veeschilders, 1600–1900. Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Leeuwarden, Fries
Museum. Zwolle, 1988, 189–91, no. 37.
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675).” 3 vols. Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 1990, 2: no. 106.
Baer, Ronni. “Dou’s Nudes.” In Aemulatio: Imitation, Emulation, and Invention in
Netherlandish Art from 1500 to 1800, Essays in Honor of Eric Jan Sluijter. Edited by Anton
W. A. Boschloo, Jacquelyn N. Coutré, Stephanie S. Dickie, and Nicolette C. Luijter-Seijffert.
Zwolle, 2011, 377, 381 n. 19.
Surh, Dominique, Van Tuinen, Ilona and Twilley, John. “Insights from Technical Analysis on
a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” Journal of Historians ofNetherlandish Art 6, no. 1 (Winter, 2014): 1–6, 11, 16–18, 22, figs. 10 a–b, 40, 41 a–c, 42
a–b, 44, 45 a–b, 55, 59 a–b.

Technical Summary
The painting is executed on of a single plank of tangentially cut, vertically grained oak from a tree
felled after 1594. The panel remains in plane, retains its original thickness and there are original
bevels along all four edges. 0.5-cm-wide by 0.7-cm-thick wooden shims have been secured to all
four panel edges. The shims’ wood grains are oriented lengthwise—they run cross-grain along
the upper and lower panel edges—have mitered corners and each has been secured to the© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Goat in a Landscape
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panel with three metal brads.[1]Under magnification, a white ground is visible along the upper and left edges, however theadded wooden shims make it impossible to determine whether the ground spills over onto any ofthe panel edges. In the X-radiograph, the ground is radio-opaque, has been thinly and evenly
applied, and accentuates the panel’s vertical wood grain. Four parallel, upward sloping diagonallines can be seen in the ground, the most prominent of which is visible through the thin glazes ofpaint across the goat’s proper left leg and tail.
The paint, which also extends to the panel edges, has been built up in successive thin layers,
light over dark.[2] In raking light, the branches of the tree stand slightly raised, as does the large
leaf to the left of the goat and the outlines of the goat’s two horns and legs.
The painting is signed in brown paint on a rock at lower center: “GDOU” (GD in ligature)
No underdrawing is evident with infrared photography at 780, 850, or 1000 nanometers,
however pentimenti, x-radiography, and infrared reflectography all suggest that the head of thegoat was originally depicted in profile, facing to the left, and the point of the proper right horn was
originally oriented parallel to the proper left horn. In addition, there has been a compositionalchange through the dark fur between the goat’s proper left leg and tail.
The painting has been brush varnished with damar.[3] The varnish has a reticulated surface andthere are numerous matte areas where the varnish has sunk. The most noticeable three areas ofsinking are to the left and right of the goat and through the proper right side of the goat’s face. In
addition, vertical hairline cracks run through the varnish parallel to the wood grain. These hairline
cracks appear as pale gray vertical lines through the blue sky along the upper half of thecomposition that continue down through the goat.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. See X-radiograph.
2. The upper layers, particularly through the blue sky along the upper left quadrant, blue
landscape, and dark fur of the goat, have been damaged during a past cleaning.
3. According to Nancy Krieg’s 2009 private conservation treatment notes and discussions
with her assistant Kirsten Younger.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection