Singing Violinist
Jacob Ochtervelt(Rotterdam 1634 – 1682 Amsterdam)ca. 1666–70
oil on panel
26.9 x 19.5 cm
JO-100© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Singing Violinist
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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Singing Violinist” (2017). 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 December2023).
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.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Dressed in the fanciful costume of a performer, this alluring musician sings to theComparative Figurestune of his violin while leaning out of an open window. His festive attire harks backto early sixteenth-century styles, including the dark red velvet beret with plumed
feathers, the luxurious satin brown shirt with slashed ribbons, and the auberginecolored velvet jacket slung casually over the window sill. With heartfelt engagementin his music, the young man peers at his audience from the corners of his eyes. One
can almost hear the tenor of his voice as it harmonizes with the notes of the violin andimagine the music rising in crescendo before falling away into silence.
This captivating image, which was first published as an autograph work by Jacob
Ochtervelt in 1979, relates closely to a group of other half-length figures that theartist executed between 1665 and 1675.[1] Ochtervelt appears to have based one ofthese paintings, Singing Violinist, 1666, in the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum (fig1), on a work by the Leiden artist Pieter van Noort (1622/25–72) (fig 2).[2] VanFig 1. Jacob Ochtervelt, SingingViolinist, 1666, oil on panel, 26.7 x21.6 cm, Glasgow Art Museum andGallery, © CSG CIC Glasgow
Museums and Libraries Collections

Noort’s Hearing from ca. 1635 is from a series devoted to the five senses, suggestingthat Ochtervelt’s painting in Glasgow, and by extension this work from The Leiden
Collection, may also have been conceived as Hearing in a now-lost series of the fivesenses.[3] Susan Donahue Kuretsky has identified these two depictions of a violinist,
as well as a third example, as self-portraits.[4]More than one third of Ochtervelt’s oeuvre is devoted to musical subjects, perhaps
because, as Kuretsky suggests, he was a musician himself.[5] The majority of thesepaintings depict interiors with full-length figures absorbed in flirting, feasting, andplaying music; all include precise representations of instruments and an informed
knowledge of how they were played. In the Leiden Collection painting, Ochterveltportrays himself at ease, holding the instrument against his shoulder in accordancewith how seventeenth-century violins were played.[6] At the end of the violin’s neck,the frayed ends of the strings hang in ringlets near the pegs. In all three of his selfportraits with a violin, Ochtervelt portrays his left hand fingering the same chord, asFig 2. Pieter van Noort, Sense ofHearing: Singing Violinist, ca. 1635, oil
on panel, 88.4 x 67 cm,
Landesmuseum, Münster, 199-202
WKV

though he were representing a specific moment of a favorite song.
Ochtervelt executed two other paintings from this period in which half-length figuresappear in a window: Singing Woman, formerly on the art market in Vienna (fig 3),and its presumed pendant, Man in a Niche, dated 1668, in the Städelsches
Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt (fig 4).[7] Because of the similar size and corresponding
musical subject matter of the Singing Woman with The Leiden Collection’s SelfPortrait, Otto Naumann suggested that they may have been conceived as pendants.[8]The similarity of the architectural niche in these two paintings, however, is somewhat
misleading, since the present painting has been largely reconstructed. Duringconservation treatment in 2008 it became evident that the window element had© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Singing Violinist
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suffered from abrasion and that an earlier restorer had imaginatively overpainted thearchitecture with an arched window (fig 5). When this overpaint was entirely
removed, it became clear that the niche was a originally configured as a rectangle (fig6). The conservator therefore reconstructed the architectural details using the Vienna
and Frankfurt paintings as models, which is how the painting is seen today.[9] The ideathat Singing Violinist and Singing Woman were originally pendants is difficult toconfirm, though possible. The suggestion that the Singing Violinist may have been partof a pair, rather than one of series depicting the five senses, is also compelling.
Regardless, the artist’s treatment of the present Singing Violinist demonstrates a deeper
impact of the Leiden painting beyond the influence of Van Noort’s example.
Ochtervelt’s meticulous rendition of details and emulation of the interplay of light on
different surfaces, including the soft texture of his silk sleeves, flouncy quality of thefeathers, and plushness of the velvet, connect this painting to the fijnschilder traditionof Leiden artists such as Gerrit Dou (1613–75) and Frans van Mieris the ElderFig 3. Jacob Ochtervelt, Singing
Woman, ca. 1668, oil on panel, 26.5 x
19.5 cm, signed (sale, Dorotheum,Vienna, Alte Meister, 15 October
2013, no. 526)

(1635–81).[10] Not only has Ochtervelt adopted a small-scale format similar to that ofhis Leiden counterparts, but his use of a window derives from a motif that appears
frequently in Dou’s works. An exquisite painting by Dou from 1653, Violin Player,
now in the Princely Collections at Vaduz Castle, Liechtenstein (fig 7), represents thetype of painting—in scale, subject matter, and composition—that inspired
Ochtervelt.[11]- Dominique Surh, 2017
Fig 4. Jacob Ochtervelt, Man in a
Niche, 1668, oil on panel, 29 x 33 cm,
Städelsches Kunstinstitut,Frankfurt, © Städel Museum –ARTOTHEK

Fig 5. Jacob Ochtervelt, Singing
Violinist, JO-100, pre-cleaned state
before treatment© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Fig 6. Jacob Ochtervelt, SingingViolinist, JO-100, actual state duringconservation in 2008

Fig 7. Gerrit Dou, Violin Player, 1653,
oil on panel, arched top, 31.7 x 20.3
cm, The Princely Collections,
Vaduz–Vienna© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Singing Violinist
Page 6 of 8Endnotes
1. Previously attributed to Ary de Vois, Otto Naumann brought this painting to the attention of Susan
Kuretsky, who was completing her monograph on the artist. See Susan Donahue Kuretsky, The Paintingsof Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682) (Oxford, 1979), 20–22, 67, no. 34, fig. 63.
2. Hamish Miles, Dutch and Flemish, Netherlandish and German Paintings, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1961), 1: 101,no. 590, 2:67, ill.; Angelika Lorenz, Renaissance und Barock im Westfälischen Landesmuseum für Kunst
und Kulturgeschichte Münster (Münster, 2000), 108–9.
3. Ochtervelt has also depicted himself as a smoker, which may have been intended to represent the senseof taste; see Susan Donahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682) (Oxford, 1979),
21; Susan Donahue Kuretsky, “The Ochtervelt Documents,” Oud Holland 87 (1973): 124–41, esp.
133–34.
4. On the entire group of paintings, see Susan Donahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt(1634–1682) (Oxford, 1979), 20–22, 66–67, nos. 33–35, 149, figs. 61–64.
5. Some 39 of about 100 total paintings from Ochtervelt’s oeuvre have musical subject matter. See SusanDonahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682) (Oxford, 1979), 20.
6. Edwin Buijsen and Louis Peter Grijp, eds.,The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music and Painting in theGolden Age (Exh. cat. The Hague, Kunsthandel Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Antwerp, HessenhuisMuseum) (Zwolle, 1994), 365.
7. For Singing Woman, see Susan Donahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682)(Oxford, 1979), 21, 73, no. 47, fig. 70a; for Man in a Niche, see Städelsches Kunstinstitut, StädelschesKunstinstitut, Verzeichnis der Gemälde (Frankfurt, 1966), 91, no. 606, and Kuretsky, The Paintings ofJacob Ochtervelt, 21, 73–74, no. 48, fig. 70.
8. Personal correspondence with the author via e-mail, 3 October 2013, kept on file at The Leiden
Collection.
9. According to Nancy Krieg’s private conservation treatment notes consulted by Annette Rupprecht,
Susan Donahue Kuretsky examined the painting in person in May 2008 and suggested the Vienna andFrankfurt paintings as plausible models for how the painting’s niche was probably originally intended.
See Annette Rupprecht, “Technical Notes of a Singing Violinist by Jacob Ochtervelt, JO-100,”
unpublished report dated May 2012, curatorial files, The Leiden Collection.
10. Susan Donahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682) (Oxford, 1979), 20–21. See
also the essay on the Leiden fijnschilders in this catalogue.
11. Ronni Baer, “Violin Player,” 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) (Washington D.C., 2000), 104–5, no. 20.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Singing Violinist
Page 7 of 8Provenance
The Rev. J. M. Heath, Vicar of Enfield, by 1857, until at least 1880, as by Ary de Vois.
David Manin Currie, Kensington, London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 18 February 1921, no. 18, as by
Ary de Voys [for 115.10 guineas to Spero]).
Private collection, Belgium (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 2007, no. 176 [Johnny van Haeften,Ltd., London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
Leeds, “National Exhibition of Works of Art,” 1868, no. 680 [lent by the Rev. J. M. Heath].
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, “Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century Dutch Painting,” 17 January
2016–21 August 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof 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 ofThe Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an account of more thanforty collections of painting, drawings, sculptures &c. &c. London, 1857, 318 (as by Ary de Vois).
[James, R.N., and L. Lefèvre]. National Exhibition of Works of Art. Exh. cat. Leeds, 1868, 47, no. 680(as by Ary de Vois).
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912. 5 vols. London, 1914, 1: 279 (as by Aryde Vois).
Kuretsky, Susan Donahue. The Paintings of Jacob van Ochtervelt (1634–1682): with Catalogue Raisonné.
Montclair and Oxford, 1979, 21, 67, no. 34, fig. 63.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Singing Violinist.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of TheLeiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 156–57; 241, no. 45. Translated by Daria Babich and© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Singing Violinist
Page 8 of 8Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of FIne Arts; St. Petersburg, The State
Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak, has bevels on all four sides.[1] The panel isunthinned and uncradled and does not have machine tool marks. There are three rows of illegible blackstencils but no wax collection seals, import stamps or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The oil paint has been applied in successive thinlayers with areas of fine detail along the figure, his elegant clothes, and the instrument. Although thecontours of these forms are slightly raised, there is no use of impasto throughout the composition.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The upper edge of the rectangular architectural niche has previously undergone a compositional change. At
the time the painting was acquired, the upper edge of the niche had been falsely reconstructed with a shallow
arch.[2] During conservation treatment, the original rectangular shape was revealed, and the upper edge of theniche was returned to its original rectangular format.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000
nanometers or in the X-radiograph.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in an excellent state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only. The front surface of the lower
panel edge appears to have been prepared for dendrochronology sometime prior to the painting’sacquisition.
2. A 2007 sales catalogue image of this painting and a February 2008 “before treatment” colortransparency both indicate the rectangular architectural niche previously had an arched upper edge.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection