Scholar Sharpening His Quillca. 1632-35

Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

oil on oval panel
26.3 x 21.2 cm
signed under quill, center right: “GD” (inmonogram)
GD-104Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Surh, Dominique. "Scholar Sharpening His Quill." 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

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An elderly scholar, clad in a purplish-brown skullcap and fur-trimmed

Comparative Figures

tabard, is seated at his study before an open book. With clenched chin andfurrowed brow, he cautiously attempts to slice the tip of a quill pen, using
the soft pad of his thumb to balance the tip against the pressure of his
blade. Concentrating on the precision of his task, he peers intently at thequill through gold-trimmed spectacles perched at the end of his nose.
The theme of the contemplative scholar at work in his study was a favorite
of Dutch artists. Gerrit Dou, however, has here shown a different type ofscholarly concern, the need to prepare his writing instrument to allow for
the proper transmission of his thoughts to the thick tome before him. In the
Dutch emblematic world, this activity symbolized the notion of Practice,
one of three Aristotelian precepts, along with Nature and Education,

Fig 1. Crispijn van de Passe, “Nilpenna sed usus,” engraving from
Gabriel Rollenhagen, Emblemata
ofte Volsinnighe uytbeelses
versamelt ende vermeerdert met
syne eygene sinrijcke vindingen(Arnhem and Utrecht, 1617)

essential for a successful and virtuous upbringing.[1] The notion of
sharpening one’s intellect through practice was exemplified by the Latin
idiom nil penna sed usus (“not the pen but its use”), and was illustrated inemblematic literature by the ostrich, a flightless bird whose feather quills
were used for writing (fig 1).[2] A slightly earlier example of the same
theme that Dou would have known because it was painted in Leiden was
The Pen Cutter by Jan Lievens (1607–74), ca. 1627 (see JL-101, fig. 1),
which shows an old man pausing from his work to examine the sharpnessof his quill.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and his Leiden circle often depicted older
men and scholars in the late 1620s and early 1630s. The sitter in thisFig 2. Gerrit Dou, Scholar
Sharpening His Quill, ca.
1632, oil on panel, octagonal, 21
x 18 cm, whereabouts unknown

painting, one of the most frequently depicted models in Leiden at the time,came to be known much later in the art historical literature as“Rembrandt’s father,” due to his frequent appearance in that artist’s work
during his Leiden period (see also GD-109).[3] Dou features this model in a
number of paintings from the late 1620s and early 1630s.[4] Martin dated
the present work to the period of Dou’s apprenticeship with Rembrandt
between 1628 and 1631, but he probably executed it slightly later, aroundca. 1632–35, about the same time as the artist’s Man in a Gorget andFeather Beret in Kassel, which depicts the same model.[5]A component of the art theoretical training Dou gained from Rembrandt
during his apprenticeship would have been the importance of practice,which may explain Dou’s fascination with this subject.[6] In fact, the Leiden
Collection painting is probably a second version of a composition that was

Fig 3. Willem Joseph Laquy after
Gerrit Dou, The Night School, ca.
1770, oil on canvas, 83 x 70 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-2320-B© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Scholar Sharpening His Quill
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formerly in the collection of James Simon in Berlin (fig 2).[7] That now-lostversion differs from the present work in both its octagonal format and its
more restricted iconography. It does not include, for example, the books,
hourglass and compass on the table, or the column and hanging lamp in
the background. One argument in favor of the chronological precedence ofthe painting formerly in Berlin is a pentimento in the ink well of the Leiden
Collection work. This pentimento reveals that Dou initially painted the ink
well in the same position as that in the octagonal version before he shifted
it to the right.
The more refined elements of the scholar’s wardrobe and materials in the
Leiden Collection painting also differ from those in the variant formerly in
Berlin. The scholar in the present painting is shown wearing a gold loop
earring, a silk scarf, and a shirt brocaded with delicate golden threads. His

Fig 4. Gerrit Dou, An Old
Schoolmaster Cutting His Pen,
1671, oil on panel, 32.2 x 24.9cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden,
inv. no. 1709

sharpening tool is appointed with costly ornamentation, details that appear
at odds with his humble surroundings. Despite the scholar’s enhanced
appearance, he remains reliant on seeing through his spectacles, eventhough he does not need to light the oil lamp to provide added
illumination.[8] These inherent contradictions between materiality andscholarly engagement are underscored by the unusual position of thehourglass, shown tilted on its side and used as a prop for the book, which
seems to hint at the scholar’s disregard for the transience of life andworldly possessions.
Within the Protestant culture of seventeenth-century Leiden—where
valuesofindustriousness,discipline,andpracticewerehighlyesteemed—this depiction of an aging scholar devotedly tending to his task
would have been seen as a poignant reminder of life’s potentials andlimits. Dou must have drawn inspiration from the academic surroundings of
his native Leiden, the site of one of Europe’s oldest universities. In thiscontext, education and learning were paramount, and elder scholars
embodied values and dilemmas that made them both human and fallible.
Executed at the beginning of Dou’s career as an artist, the present work isa poignant reminder of the repetition and practice that went into his artistic
training.
Dou treated the subject of the pen cutter on several occasions throughout
his career. In a more ambitious narrative apparently illustrating Aristotle’s
tripartite maxim, Dou featured a pen cutter in one of the wings of the lost© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Braamcamp triptych, from about 1660, known only through an eighteenthcentury copy by Willem Joseph Laquy (fig 3).[9] The idea of the pen cutter
as an embodiment of Practice was repeated in a number of Dou’s nightschool scenes, especially An Evening School from about 1655 in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and in a late work from 1671 in
the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, An Old Schoolmaster Cutting His Pen , inwhich a group of school children learning to write are visible in the
background (fig 4).[10]-Dominique Surh

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. Plutarch’s Golden Book, also known as De liberis educandis (On the Education of Bringing
up Children), was translated into Dutch three times in the seventeenth century and repeated
the tripartite Aristotelian notion of Natura, Disciplina, and Exercitatio. See Jan Baptist
Bedaux, ed., Pride and Joy: Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500–1700 (Exh. cat.
Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) (Ghent
and Amsterdam, 2000), 19–22. J. A. Emmens was the first to explore Dou’s incorporation ofthese ideas in his work and suggested that Scholar Sharpening His Quill was an illustrationof Practice (Exercitatio). See J. A. Emmens, “Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij een
drieluik van Gerrit Dou,” in Kunsthistorische Opstellen (Amsterdam, 1981), 2:5–22 (firstpublished in Album Discipulorum Prof. G. van Gelder [Utrecht, 1963], 125–63, and inabbreviated form in English as “A Seventeenth-Century Theory of Art: Nature and Practice,”in Delta [1969]: 12:30–39); Peter Hecht, “Gerrit Dou’s Braamcamp Triptych Reconsidered: A
Sceptical View of Its ‘Allegorical’ Meaning,” in Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour
Slive (Cambridge, 1995), 100–2.
2. Gabriel Rollenhagen, Emblemata ofte Volsinnighe uytbeelses versamelt ende vermeerdert
met syne eygene sinrijcke vindingen (Arnhem and Utrecht, 1617) (electronic ed.,Wolfenbüttel: Herzog August Bibliothek, 2004. An Italian motto further likens the quill to
intellect: Senza taglio non vaglio (“I am worthless unless sharpened”), see note 1 above.
The theme was a favorite among Dutch artists, including Jan Lievens, Salomon Koninck,
Gabriel Metsu, Jan Steen, and Frans van Mieris, among others.
3. Arthur M. Hind, “The Portraits of Rembrandt’s Father,” Burlington Magazine (1906):
426–27; see also Christiaan Vogelaar, ed., Rembrandt’s Mother: Myth and Reality (Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2005), 143ff.
4. On the discussion of the model known as “Rembrandt’s Father” seen in theMan with aGlobe in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and in Man in a Gorget and Feather Beret in
Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Kassel, see Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou(1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1990), nos. 2 and 11.
5. Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou, sa vie et son oeuvre: Etude sur la peinture hollandaise et lesmarchaunds au dix septième siècle (Paris, 1911), 168, no. 31; Wilhelm Martin,Gerard Dou,des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), 23.
6. Emmens regarded Dou’s Scholar Sharpening His Quill as a valuable document
demonstrating the example of the Aristotelian concept passed on to him by his teacher
Rembrandt. See J. A. Emmens, “Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij een drieluik van Gerrit
Dou,” in Kunsthistorische Opstellen (Amsterdam, 1981) 2:21.
7. The version, which was subsequently with art dealers A. S. Drey, Munich, in 1925, and later© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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with D. Katz, Dieren, may be equivalent with one or both of the other two versions known
only through sale records (see Versions). It is likely that the drawing by Oyens and the print
by Waanders were made after this variant.
8. For a useful summary of the depiction of spectacles in art, see Vincent Ilardi,Renaissance
Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes , Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 259(Philadelphia, 2007).
9. Described by Houbraken, Dou’s original work was lost in the shipwreck of the Vrouw Maria
in 1771 while in transit to Catherine of Russia and is known only through the copy by Willem
Joseph Laquy. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Dou’s Reputation,” 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), 17 and 120, no. 28.
10. Annegret Laabs, The Leiden Fijnschilders from Dresden, trans. Ruth Koenig, from Von derlustvollen betrachtung der Bilder: Leidener Feinmaler in der Dresdener Gemäldegalerie(Exh. cat. Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen; Leiden,
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2000), 42–43; see also Walter Liedtke, ed.,Dutch
Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , 2 vols. (New York, New Haven, and London,
2007), 1:156.

ProvenanceBicker van Zwieten (his sale, Bicker van Zwieten, The Hague, 12 April 1741, no. 68 [to Hoedfor 110 florins]).
André de Stolberg, Count of Brabeck, Söder (his sale, Rumpler, Hannover, 31 October
1859, no. 78 [for 500 florins]).
King George V of Hannover (1819–78), 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, by 1864;
confiscated when annexed by Prussia in 1866; held as inalienable property by the House of
Braunschweig-Luneburg(in fidei commissum), 1892–1924; returned to the House of

Braunschweig-Luneburg in 1924; by descent to the Princely House of Hannover, Germany
and Switzerland, until 2001.
Private collection, Los Angeles and Denver; (private sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 2007).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Hannover, Welfen-Museum, on loan until 1864–66, no. 132 [lent by King George V].
Hannover, Museum for Arts and Sciences, on loan in the Cumberland-Galerie, 1886–92, no.
118 [lent by the government holding the endowment belonging to King George V].
Hannover, Provinzial Museum, on loan in the Fideicommiss-Galerie, 1892–1924 [lent as
inalienable property on trust (in fidei commissum) of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneberg].
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12
December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012,
no. 12 [lent by the present owner].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou. The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9March–31 August 2014 [lent by 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
Hoet, G. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langenreeks van jaaren zoo. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 2: 16, no. 66.
Das Kӧnigliche Welfen-museum zu Hannover im Jahre 1863. Hannover, 1864, 85, no. 132.
Verzeichniss der zum Vermӧgen des Kӧnigs George V Gehӧrenden Gemӓlde welche sichin dem House Nr. 3 der Landschaftstrasse zu Hannover befinden. Hannover, 1876, 85, no.
465.
Katalog der zum Ressort der Königlichen Verwaltungs-Kommission gehörigen Sammlungvon Gemälden, Skulpturen und Alterthümern im Provinzial-Museumgebäude and derPrinzenstrasse Nr. 4 zu Hannover. Hannover, 1891, 100, no. 118.
Martin, Wilhelm. Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou. Leiden, 1901, 192, no. 74.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou. London, 1902, 129, no. 130.
Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg
gehörigen Sammlung von Gemӓlden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum Rudolf v.
Bennigsenstrasse 1 zu Hannover. Hannover, 1902, 100, no. 118.
Eisenmann, O. Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig
und Lüneburg gehörigen Sammlung von Gemӓlden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum
Rudolf v. Bennigsenstrasse 1 zu Hannover. Hannover, 1905, 47, no. 91.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Scholar Sharpening His Quill
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Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:361, no. 56. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts .
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, 168, no. 31.
Martin, Wilhelm. Gerard Dou, des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst. Stuttgart andBerlin, 1913, 23.
Emmens, J. A. “A Seventeenth-Century Theory of Art: Nature and Practice.” Delta 12(1969): 37 (later published in Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Realism
Reconsidered. Edited by Wayne Franits. Cambridge, 1997, 15–20).
Emmens, J. A. “Natuur, onderwijzing en oefening bij een drieluik van Gerrit Dou.” In
Kunsthistorische Opstellen. Amsterdam, 1981, 2:5–22 (first published in Album
Discipulorum Prof. G. van Gelder. Utrecht, 1963, 125–63).
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675).” 3 vols. Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 1990, Appendix A, as “untraced works.”
Hecht, Peter. “Gerrit Dou’s Braamcamp Triptych Reconsidered: A Sceptical View of Its‘Allegorical’ Meaning.” In Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive (Cambridge, 1995):
100–2, 321–23, fig. 4.
Laabs, Annegret. The Leiden Fijnschilders from Dresden. Translated by Ruth Koenig from
Von der lustvollen betrachtung der Bilder: Leidener Feinmaler in der Dresdener
Gemäldegalerie.

Exh.

cat.

Dresden,Gemäldegalerie

Alte

Meister,

Staatliche

Kunstsammlungen; Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 2000, 78 n. 152.
Buvelot, Quentin. “Old Man Sharpening His Pen .” In Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Editedby Quentin Buvelot. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery ofArt. New Haven, 2005, 73, under nos. 1–2.
Surh, Dominique. “A Scholar Sharpening His Quill.” In Communication: Visualizing the
Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat. Kyoto
Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi Museum of Art; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art. Tokyo,
2011, 64–66, no. 12.
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, 3, 5, 7, 10–11, figs. 1a–b, 15, 26, 27a–b, 28a–c,
48.

Versions© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Engraved
1. F. B. Waanders after Gerrit Dou, A Scholar Sharpening His Quill , (after the octagonalversion formerly in Berlin).

Versions and Copies
1. Gerrit Dou, Scholar Sharpening His Quill, oil on panel, octagonal, 21 x 18 cm, whereabouts
unknown (formerly in the collection of James Simon, Berlin; subsequently with art dealer A.
S. Drey, Munich, 1925; art dealer D. Katz, Dieren).

2. Gerrit Dou, Pen Sharpener, oil on panel, 24 x 19 cm, whereabouts unknown (formerly insale, Leiden, 26 August 1788).

3. Gerrit Dou, Pen Sharpener, oil on panel, 25.5 x 20.5 cm, whereabouts unknown (formerly insale, Cauwerven, Leiden, 31 July 1765; sale, A. Motte, [city?], 20 August 1794 for 101
florins, to Ijver; sale Robiano, Brussels, 1 May 1837; sale, D. v. d. Schrieck, Leuven, 10 April
1861).

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The oval painting was executed on a vertically grained oak panel. The panel has been thinned,
and no original bevel remains. A horizontally grained, crescent-shaped addition extends threequarters of the way around the perimeter, along all but the upper right quadrant when viewed
from the front.
The panel was prepared with a light-colored ground. It was thinly applied and does not mask the
texture of the woodgrain. It is radio-opaque, accentuating the woodgrain in the X-radiographs,
which is a sign that it probably contains a lead-based pigment. The X-radiographs show a lightarea around the figure, indicating that Dou blocked in the area of the figure first.
Dou applied the paint thinly and smoothly, using low impasto only in the objects on the table, thegold handle of the scholar’s knife, and the shadow of the book. The writing in the book was
executed with a very dilute paint with fine pigment particles. This contrasts with the book text in
Scholar Interrupted at His Writing (GD-102), in which coarse pigment particles in a thicker paintwere used.[1] The purple cloak of the scholar was created with red lake and indigo. Red lake is afugitive pigment, but the pigment particles do not show signs of fading; however a top glaze layer© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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may have been lost.[2] Infrared reflectography shows three artist’s changes.[3] The inkpot was
moved to the right, originally located where the compass now lies; the knuckles of the scholar’s
proper left hand were shifted to the left; and the thumb of the scholar’s proper right hand was
shortened and moved toward the index finger.
The painting is in fairly good condition. The panel bears a slight convex warp when viewed fromthe front and there is a vertical split in the panel stemming from the center of the top edge. It was
repaired with a wooden insert measuring 4.2 cm high by 3 cm wide, which extends into theadded crescent. There is another repair to the panel along the bottom edge, consisting of avertically grained wooden insert that measures 3 cm high by 11 cm wide. There is heavy
abrasion to the paint and ground along the entire perimeter, but especially where the oval
crescent was attached. There are also paint losses along the split and in the upper rightquadrant. There is further abrasion in the inkwell, the scholar’s hat, and his cloak, most notably inthe shadows. The “G” in the artist’s monogram is also worn. The varnish is matte and does not
fully saturate the paint. The painting was treated in 2007.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 10 January 2013.
2. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 10 January 2013.
3. Infrared reflectography was performed by Shawn Digney-Peer at unknown specifications.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection