Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Gabriel Metsu." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. NewYork, 2017.
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Gabriel Metsu was born sometime in late 1629. His parents were the painter Jacques Metsu (ca.
1588–1629) and the midwife Jacquemijn Garniers (1589/93–1651).[1] Before settling in Leiden around
1615, Gabriel’s father spent some time in Gouda, earning his living as a painter of patterns for tapestry
manufacturers. No work by Jacques is known, nor do paintings attributed to him appear in Leiden
inventories.[2] Both of Gabriel’s parents came from Southwest Flanders, but when they were still children
their families moved to the Dutch Republic. When the couple wed in Leiden in 1625, neither was young andboth had previously been married. Jacquemijn’s second husband, Guilliam Fermout from Dordrecht, hadalso been a painter. Jacques Metsu never knew his son, for he died eight months before Gabriel wasborn.[3] In 1636 his widow took a fourth husband, Cornelis Bontecraey, an inland water skipper with
sufficient means to provide well for Gabriel, as well as for his half-brother and two half-sisters—all three
from Jacquemijn’s first marriage.
It is difficult to pinpoint who trained Metsu as a painter. Houbraken, whose Schouburgh sheds light on somany painters, offers no insights in this regard. Various authors have put forth the name of Gerrit Dou(1613–75), though there is no evidence to back this up. Moreover, Dou’s influence on Metsu’s work firstmanifests itself only in the mid-1650s, by which time Metsu had been working independently for a fewyears.[4] It is far more likely that Metsu received his primary instruction in drawing from the Haarlem
silversmith Claes Pietersz de Grebber soon after he had settled in Leiden around 1640. In any case, athirteen-year-old Metsu served as a witness for him.[5] One of Claes’s brothers was the famous Haarlem
painter Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1572/73–1649), the father of the painters Pieter (1600–52/53) andMaria de Grebber (1602–80). Maria was the mother of Metsu’s future wife.
Judging from Metsu’s earliest known history scenes, his second master was probably a history painter.
Specialists in this genre, however, were scarce in Leiden. Anthony Claesz de Grebber (ca. 1622–after1683), son of the above-mentioned silversmith, was one of these very few. Some of his works are so close
to those of Metsu that we must consider the possibility that he was Metsu’s second teacher. Such anapprenticeship would not have lasted long, however, given that “Gabriel Metsu, schilder” (Gabriel Metsu,painter) is mentioned in 1644 in a list of thirty-one names drawn up in support of a petition to establish a© 2017 The Leiden CollectionGabriel Metsu
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Guild of Saint Luke.[6] It is highly unlikely that the barely fifteen-year-old Metsu was already active as anindependent painter. The mention of his name could indicate that his colleagues recognized his remarkabletalent and that he already had contributed substantially to the production of his teacher. When the Leiden
fine art painters, united with the house painters, finally convinced the Leiden town council in 1648 of theneed for a Guild of Saint Luke of their own, Metsu was among the first to join and pay his dues. Considering
his young age, though, it is improbable that he had already set up his own workshop. Perhaps his share in
the production of his master had become more important and he was allowed to sign his own work.
Written next to his name in the guild record in 1650 is “vertrokken” (departed). Accordingly, it was longassumed that he moved at that time from Leiden to Amsterdam. This note, however, was added only in1658; between 1650 and that year, the guild’s administration was poorly kept and the contributions hardlyreceived, if at all. Nevertheless, Metsu probably did leave Leiden at some point after 1650. In 1650 and1651, he appears to have worked for a time with Nicolaus Knüpfer (ca. 1603–55) in Utrecht, possibly at theinstigation of his fellow townsman Jan Steen (1625/26–79), a former pupil of Knüpfer.[7] Metsu returned toLeiden after this Utrecht intermezzo.
In mid-1654 Metsu indeed moved to Amsterdam, where he would work for the remainder of his life.[8] He
settled on the Prinsengracht at De Gecroonde Hoet brewery, in a small house that belonged to a distantrelative. This move coincided with a far-reaching change in his work: within a short time he transformed
himself from a history painter into a genre painter. Only in Amsterdam does he seem to have acknowledged
his Leiden origins, and Dou’s influence can be discerned for the first time. This, however, remained limited
to his choice of subjects and composition; he did not adopt Dou’s fine and time-consuming painting style.
The bright color accents enlivening his monochrome paintings recall Nicolaes Maes (1634–93), while his
fluid facture mirrors that of Jan Baptist Weenix (1621–60/61), whose work he had become acquainted withwhile in Utrecht.
On 19 May 1658 Metsu married Isabella de Wolff from Enkhuizen. Her parents were Wouter Coenraetsz deWolff and the painter Maria de Grebber (1602–80). Metsu evidently met her through his former teacher
Anthony Claesz de Grebber, who had abandoned Leiden for Amsterdam two years earlier and whowitnessed the marriage contract on Metsu’s behalf. Metsu frequently used Isabella as a model, and she
surely features in many of his paintings. Metsu died in the fall of 1667. He must have moved shortly before
then, for he was taken from the Leidsestraat to be buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on 24 October. With his death,genre painting lost in these years one of its most important representatives, whose work inspired countlesspainters, including Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer, Frans van Mieris, and Pieter de Hooch.
-Piet Bakker

Endnotes
1. The exact date of Metsu’s birth is not known. Waiboer contends that it must be situatedbetween 27 November and mid-December 1629. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life andWork: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 5.
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionGabriel Metsu
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2. Attributed paintings occur in Leiden estate inventories only regularly as of the 1640s; Jacques
Metsu died in 1629.
3. Gabriel was probably the only child to issue from this union. How many half brothers andsisters he had from his parents’ previous marriages is difficult to assess. When Jacquemijn
Garniers petitioned the town council in 1631 to appoint her as an “ordinaris” midwife, she statedthat she had nine children to raise, but she may have been exaggerating to appeal to their
sympathies. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (NewHaven and London, 2012), 4.
4. The first manifestation of Dou’s influence on Metsu is A Public Notary; see GM-101.
5. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 331, doc. 48.
6. For this list, see Regional Archives Leiden, Gildenarchief, inv. 855, fol. 15 (1644). Published inA. Bredius, “’De boeken van het Leidsche St. Lucas gilde,” in F. D. O. Obreen,Archief voor
Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols. (Rotterdam, 1877–90), 5:177–78. For the guild’s
complicated history, see Piet Bakker, “Crisis? Welke crisis? Kanttekeningen bij het economischverval van de schilderkunst in Leiden na 1660,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 27 (2011): 232–69.
7. Adriaan E. Waiboer, “The Early Years of Gabriel Metsu,” Burlington Magazine 147 (2005):
80-90.
8. This change of venue is often attributed to Amsterdam’s cosmopolitan character, which would
have appealed greatly to an ambitious painter such as Metsu. But it could have been motivatedequally by economic circumstances, if one bears in mind the dwindling market in Leiden, which
was expressed in the rapid decrease in the number of painters after 1652. Metsu was not the
only one to leave the city, although he was among the first to do so. Piet Bakker, “Crisis? Welke
crisis? Kanttekeningen bij het economisch verval van de schilderkunst in Leiden na 1660,”De
Zeventiende Eeuw 27 (2011): 232–69.

Literature
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,
Amsterdam, 1980, 1:370; 3:32, 40–42, 211.
De Vries, A. D. “Het testament en sterfjaar van Gabriel Metsu.” Oud-Holland 1 (1883):© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Gabriel Metsu
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78–80.
De Vries, A. D. “Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche
schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten.” Oud-Holland 3 (1885): 223–40, esp.
228–33.
Bredius, Abraham. “Iets over de jeugd van Gabriel Metsu.” Oud-Holland 25 (1907):
197–203.
Renckens, B. J. A. and Duyvetter, J. “De vrouw van Gabriel Metsu, Isabella de Wolff,
geboortig van Enkhuizen.” Oud-Holland 74 (1959): 179–82.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla J. “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu.” Oud-Holland 83(1968): 13–43.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “The Early Years of Gabriel Metsu.” Burlington Magazine 147 (2005):
80–90.
Hedquist, Valerie. “Dutch Genre Painting as Religious Art: Gabriel Metsu’s Roman CatholicImagery.” Art History 31 (2008): 159–86.
Waiboer, Adriaan E., ed. Gabriel Metsu. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven andLondon, 2012.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection