Portrait of a Woman in Profile
Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1635–40
oil on panel
13.3 x 11.3 cm
signed in dark paint along left midpoint ofoval: “GDou”
GD-110© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of a Woman in Profile” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-a-woman-inprofile/ (archived May 2020).
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 narrativeoccurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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This profile portrait of an attractive young woman with wisps of wavy brown

Comparative Figures

hair curling over her forehead is one in a series of small, bust-length studies
thatGerrit[1]1640.

Doupaintedin

anovalformatbetween1635

andComparable paintings by the artist include his Portrait Bust of aYouth from ca. 1635 in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (fig 1), andPortrait of a Young Woman from ca. 1635–40 in the Manchester City ArtGalleries.[2] All three works are similar in scale and format, and situate adelicately rendered sitter against a loosely brushed background. This
unknown female sitter is portrayed in a fur-trimmed jacket of the type worn byladies in the middle class, and is shown without a formal ruff or other collar.
She wears a simple embroidered silk undercap, called blackwork, with ascrolling foliage pattern typical of the 1630s, but not the intricate lace coif of
the type that would have normally been worn over it.[3] This manner of dress
indicates a degree of informality and suggests that she may have been a
relative or close personal acquaintance of the artist.[4] Given her orientation

Fig 1. Gerrit Dou, Portrait Bust of aYouth, ca. 1635, oil on panel, 15.1
x 12.2 cm, Fitzwilliam Museum,Cambridge, nr. 35, ©
2000–2012, The FitzwilliamMuseum, University of Cambridge,UK.

facing left, it is possible that Dou originally paired her with a now-lost malependant.
The woman’s unusual “earring” further situates her fashion to the 1630s.
This type of ornament is not attached to her ear, but is part of her headdress.
It actually hangs from the tips of her ear-iron (oorijzer), which holds her
undercap in place. Marieke de Winkel has found mention of similar suchornaments, consisting of crescent moons and a small pendant pearl or
crystal, in inventories of women who were deceased in the 1640s but[5]married in the 1630s, when they likely purchased these fashionable items.

Fig 2. Detail of face, Portrait of aWoman in Profile, GD-110

In Dou’s portrait, a bright light illuminates the sitter’s glowing complexion,
rosy lips and high-collared white shirt. The artist’s close observation of lightis evident in the way the shirt casts a bluish-white reflection on the undersideof the woman’s chin. Dou’s painterly virtuosity is particularly apparent in thesmooth and delicate rendering of the sitter’s facial features, where his
individualized brushstrokes are virtually imperceptible. Dou had an
extraordinary capacity to balance areas of minute detail with more broadly
painted passages. Here, for example, he allowed the ocher ground toFig 3. Detail of collar, Portrait of a
Woman in Profile, GD-110

provide a base color for the sitter’s hair by painting the hair follicles withoverlapping strokes of transparent paint. The range of his brushwork isevident in the freely rendered curly wisps of hair that fall along her temples,
where some single follicles are also incised in the same color of her flesh
tone (fig 2). These wavy strokes contrast with the carefully brushed parallel
hatchings that model both her temple and her eyebrow in virtually© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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indistinguishable tones of color. Dou painted the semi-translucent bonnet
with loosely brushed strokes that vary in rhythm and thickness, carefully
allowing the faintly perceptible shape of the lady’s ear to read through theembroidered undercap’s delicate form. Finally, painting wet-into-wet, Dou
softened the edges of the fur cloak by dragging his brush back and forth over
the whites of the woman’s shirt (fig 3).
Despite Dou’s careful manner of painting to model his forms and create arange of textures, he often adjusted his compositions during the pictorialprocess. In this instance, he shifted the sitter’s profile slightly to the right, achange that is apparent with the naked eye and also through infraredFig 4. Verso of Portrait of a
Woman in Profile, GD-110

reflectography. This change is particularly evident along the sitter’sforehead, suggesting that she may initially have directed her gaze slightly
lower than in the final orientation.
An intriguing feature of this small portrait is the construction of its panel
support, where the painted oval panel is set into a larger rectangular one.
The reasons for this construction are unclear, but other examples of suchinserted panels are known by Dou and other Leiden painters.[6] In the case of
the present Portrait of a Woman in Profile, the dendrochronology of the outer
rectangular panel dates from the 1660s–70s, which suggests that it was laterFig 5. Interior of Marcus Kappel
Gallery, Berlin, ca. 1921, whereGD-110 is seen at the far right,
lower row (photo: Sotheby’s, NewYork, 4 June 2009, 38).

adapted to a larger format.[7]Three unidentified red wax seals on the reverse reference the painting’s
unknown eighteenth- and nineteenth-century owners (fig 4). The provenanceis documented only as far back as 1914, when the work formed part of therenowned Marcus Kappel collection in Berlin (fig 5). Acquired by descentduring the third decade of the twentieth century, the pocket-sized Dou
painting made its way to England with Henry T. Rathenau, who escaped
Berlin during World War II. The little Dou was kept in a bank vault in Englandup until 1997, when Rathenau’s last heir, his sister Ellen Ettlinger, passedaway.[8]- Domique Surh, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Woman in Profile
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1. According to Ronni Baer, the handling of the paint and the delicately drawn features point to adate closer to 1640. See Ronni Baer, “Portrait of a Woman,” in Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: MasterPainter 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) 82–83, no. 10.
2. The Dou in the Manchester City Art Gallery is 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), 80–81, no. 9.
3. Marieke de Winkel, letter to the author, July 2013, curatorial files, The Leiden Collection.
4. Marieke de Winkel, letter to the author, July 2013, curatorial files, The Leiden Collection.
5. The author would like to thank Marieke de Winkel (letter to the author, July 2013, curatorial
files, The Leiden Collection) for identifying the “earrings” as part of the ear-iron and forproviding the following references to inventories from the 1630s and 1640s that describe
these jewels: Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Notarial Archive, notary J. Westfrisius, no. 563B, fols.
1–21, 1/5 jan. 1636, inventory of Abraham de Marez (II) and Rebecca Hooghcamer, there atfol. 20r: “2 dito [peerlen] in halve maenties hangende f. 30:-:-”; Stadsarchief Amsterdam,Notarial Archive, notary A. Eggericx, no. 1811B, pp. 963-94, dd. 20 jul. 1642, inventory ofJacques van Hoorn and Sofia van den Brande, there at p. 983: “2 halve maenen met
cristallen”; Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Notarial Archive, notary F. Bruyningh, no. 1414, fols.
41–48, dd. 23 nov. 1643, inventory of Mr. Paulus Jansz Iepelaar and Magdalena Jans, thereat fol. 48r: “Een silver ysertien met 2 halve maentiens op f. 5:-:-”. The author also thanks PietBakker for providing the precise folio numbers.
6. See Quentin Buvelot and Otto Naumann, “Format Changes in Paintings by Frans van Mieris
the Elder,” Burlington Magazine (February 2008): 102–4. In 2012 Gero Seelig, curator ofNetherlandish paintings at the Staatliche Museum in Schwerin, presented his ongoing
research on this phenomenon at Codart Vijftien in Brussels and shared a list of inlaid panels
including works by an overwhelming number of Leiden painters such as Dou, Frans andWillem van Mieris, Godfried Schalcken, and Pieter van Slingeland, among others. For apartial list of these unsual constructions in Dou’s oeuvre, see Ronni Baer, “Of Cats andDogs: Domestic Pets in Rembrandt and Dou,” in Een Kroniek voor Jeroen Giltaij: Kroniek van
het Rembrandthuis (2012): 66–67 n. 16; Anja K. Sevcik and Jiri Trestik, “Doorstep
Transactions: Structural and Compositional Transformations on Gerard Dou’s Young Lady ona Balcony,” Bulletin of the National Gallery in Prague 22–23 (2012–13): 23–43.
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7. Ian Tyers, “Tree-Ring Analysis of Portrait of a Lady in Profile, GD-110,” unpublisheddendrochronological report, November 2010, curatorial files, the Leiden Collection. Since theoval panel is firmly set into the larger panel, dendrochronological examination of the earlier
oval panel is not possible through traditional means at this time.
8. On the painting’s twentieth-century provenance, see Dominique Surh, “Portrait of a Womanin Profile,” in Salomon Lilian Old Masters (Sales cat. Amsterdam) (Zwolle, 2003), 26–27, no.
8.

ProvenanceMarcus Kappel, Berlin, 1914; by descent to Henry T. Rathenau, Berlin; by descent to hissister Ellen Ettlinger, Oxford, England, until 1997 [Noortman Gallery, Maastricht].
Private collection, the Netherlands [Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, 2003].
From whom acquired by the present owner, July 2003.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, on loan with the permanent collection, before 1940 (inv. no. 1173,label on verso).
Washington, National Gallery of Art, “Gerrit Dou, 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age ofRembrandt,” 16 April–6 August 2000; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 6 September–19
November 2000; The Hague, Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, 9 December 2000–25February 2001, no. 10 [lent by a private collector].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, December
2009–January 2011 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012[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 fromThe LeidenCollection,” 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].
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References
Baer, Ronni. “Portrait of a Woman.” In Gerrit Dou, 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age ofRembrandt. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 82–83, no. 10. Exh. cat. Washington, D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis. Zwolle,
2000.
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of a Woman in Profile.” In Salomon Lilian Old Masters. Sales cat.
Amsterdam, 2003, 26–27, no. 8.
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): 1, 3, 5,
20–22, figs. 4a–b, 57, 58, 61. DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of a Woman in Profile.” In

Rembrandt and His Time:

Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 86, no. 33, 180,no. 33. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. 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, 106.

Technical Summary
The painting is executed on a vertically grained, oval oak panel, which has been set into a larger
rectangular oak panel with a vertical grain. The rectangular panel is considerably thicker than theoval. The oval panel could not be dated because the edges are obscured, but the rectangularpanel has an earliest felling date of 1661.[1] It is unclear when the oval was set into the rectangularpanel, but it was likely during the artist’s lifetime.[2] The rectangular panel has equal, steep bevels
on all four edges, and the composite panel has a slight convex warp when viewed from the front.
The rectangular panel is unprimed and unpainted, but the oval panel was prepared with a lightcolored ground that was thinly and evenly applied. The priming is radio-opaque and accentuates
the woodgrain of the oval panel in the X-radiograph. The ground does not extend all the way tothe edges of the oval, but the paint does. The paint has been built up in successive thin layers,painted wet-into-wet. The paint is so thin in the background that the ground shows through, butthere is slight impasto in the figure, most notably along the outer contours of her cap, her proper
left sleeve, and the fur trim of her cloak. Raised brushwork in the background indicates ahorizontally oriented arch to the right of the sitter’s head, which does not relate to the current
composition. Infrared photographs and a pentimento reveal that the sitter’s profile was shifted© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of a Woman in Profile
Page 8 of 8slightly to the right.[3]The painting is in good condition. There are slight protrusions and related craters throughout thepaint and some craquelure is visible. There are some marks around the lower right side of theoval, which may be rabbet damage from an old frame. This would indicate that the oval panel wasset into the rectangular panel well after the painting was completed.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Ian Tyers, dendrochronological report, November 2012.
2. Ian Tyers, dendrochronological report, November 2012.
3. Infrared photographs were taken at 780, 850, and 1000 nm.

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