Traveler at Rest
Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

ca. 1657
oil on copper
21.6 x 17.8 cm
signed, lower right: “F. van Mieris”
FM-122© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
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How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Traveler at Rest” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-traveler-at-rest/ (archived May2020).
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 narrative
occurs.

Traveler at Rest, datable to about 1657, is one of Frans van Mieris’s earliest
masterpieces.

[1]

Comparative Figures

Beautifully executed and wonderfully preserved, this painting

demonstrates why this Leiden master was famous for his ability to render
light effects and the varied textures of materials. Van Mieris has here
depicted a young, red-haired man sitting in the shade of ancient ruins partly
overgrown with vegetation and gazing straight at the viewer. In his lap lies arather large hat, and in his left hand he holds a flask with a wicker cover.
Judging from the bag lying beside him, his walking stick, sagging stocking
and the torn seam at his shoulder, the man has been traveling and has
stopped in a cool spot to refresh himself. The landscape beyond the ruin’s
arched opening is reminiscent of the sun-drenched images of the Dutch
Italianates, whose paintings must have served as Van Mieris’s source of[2]

inspiration, since he never traveled to Italy.

Van Mieris painted a similar composition, but in reverse, on the easel in theinterior of his The Painter in His Studio of about 1657 in the Staatliche

Fig 1. Frans van Mieris the Elder,
The Painter in His Studio, ca.
1657, oil on panel, 63.9 x 46.8 cm,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte
Meister, 1751

Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (fig 1). In that scene, a wealthy visitor or
connoisseur studies the painting closely under the artist’s watchful eye.
There, too, the painting on the easel features a man with a walking stickseated in a relaxed manner under the arched vault of an antique ruin (fig 2).
He has removed a sock and a shoe to cool off and rest after his travels. In
much the same manner, the sagging stocking in the Leiden Collection
painting indicates that the traveler is at rest.[3] Van Mieris emphasizes thetraveler’s bared knee by having the young man rest his arm on it, a pose

Fig 2. Detail of Frans van Mieris© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
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also seen in a depiction of a smoking man by Simon Kick (1603–52) and in
Carel Fabritius’s (1622–54) Sentry from 1654 (Schwerin, Staatliches
Museum).[4] In each of these instances this motif indicates that the man is

the Elder, The Painter in His
Studio, ca. 1657, oil on panel, 63.9
x 46.8 cm, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Dresden,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, 1751

resting his tired feet.[5]The clothing of the man depicted in Traveler at Rest denotes a certain
affluence, and he may very well have been a Dutchman who went to Italy
and wanted to have his trip commemorated once he had returned to Leiden.
The man’s face, which has all the striking features of an actual portrait,
closely resembles that of the visitor in Van Mieris’s Dresden painting, who
seems to have come to the artist’s studio to see how he has been
represented. The tattered look, the direct gaze, and the Italianate setting in
the Leiden Collection painting similarly indicate that the sitter wanted tostress his full engagement in the experience of being abroad.[6] The
directness of the portrait resembles that of cloth merchant Anthony de
Bordes, who commissioned a portrait by Michael Sweerts (1618–64) in about
1648 (fig 3). De Bordes visited Italy in 1648, and the backdrop of his

Fig 3. Michael Sweerts, Anthonij
de Bordes and His Valet, ca. 1648,
oil on canvas, 50.7 x 66.6 cm,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C., Gift from theCollection of Dr. Arthur and Mrs.
Arlene Elkind, Fund given in honorof Derald Ruttenberg’s
Grandchildren, and New Century
Fund, 2012.13.1

portrait—an obelisk standing in a park-like landscape with a fountain—places
the scene in Rome.[7] Whereas the merchant is helped out of his boots by aservant, suggesting he has just returned from riding in the Roman
countryside, the man in Van Mieris’s painting has simply been walking.
In painting Traveler at Rest, Van Mieris used a copper plate, an ultra-smoothsupport ideally suited to his refined and meticulous technique.[8] Interestingly,
the artist, who had spent a short time training as a goldsmith, applied a layerof gold leaf over the copper ground.[9] Rembrandt had done the same around
1629–30 in his Laughing Soldier.[10] But while the latter artist allowed the gold
to glint through the surface of the paint, Van Mieris covered up the gold withhis preparatory layers. He may have wanted to protect the painting from theravages of time, as gold shields the paint from copper’s oxidation. In any
event, this expensive technique is another indication that the painting wascommissioned by a wealthy individual who wanted his portrait painted as areminder of his travels to Italy. Without knowing the details of Van Mieris’s
technique, Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1797–1868), the director of the Berlin
museums and the first professor of art history in that city, praised thispainting in 1854 as being “of that soft golden tone, and of that delicate
feeling, which distinguish his best pictures.”[11]The earliest known owner of Traveler at Rest is probably Jacob Hoofman (d.
1799). After his death, the painting must have been inherited by one of his
art-loving daughters, either Margaretha Hoofman (1773–1807) or Maria© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
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Hoofman(1776–1845),[12]

collection.

who

each

inherited

half

of

their

father’s

After Margaretha’s death, her part of the paintings collection

was inherited by her husband, Pieter Quarles van Ufford (1757–1834), whotransferred the ownership of the most important works in this collection to his
unmarried sister-in-law, Maria Hoofman, while others were sold anonymously
in 1818.[13] In or before 1819 the painting was part of the art collection of
shipbuilder William Wells (1768–1847), who lived in Kent.[14] After Wells’s
death, the painting was acquired by Robert Staynor Holford (1808–92), a
member of the British parliament. In 1857 Holford lent the painting to thefamousexhibitionin

Manchester,Art

TreasuresoftheUnitedKingdom.[15] Apart from that exhibition, the painting remained at Holford’s
London residence, Dorchester House, which his son, Sir George Holford(1860–1926), inherited in 1892. After the latter’s death, Traveler at Rest
became the property of Giovanni Agnelli (1921–2003), head of the Italian
automobile company Fiat in Turin. The painting entered a private collection inGermany in 1988, after which it was acquired by the New York collector Eric
Martin Wunsch (1924–2013). In January 2014, this exquisite painting entered
the Leiden Collection.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. Previously, this highly accomplished painting was dated 1656–57 and 1655–57; cf.,
respectively, Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk,
1981), 1: 44; and Quentin Buvelot, “The Resting Traveler,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681,
ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery ofArt) (Zwolle, 2005), 98.
2. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:46; andDieter Beaujean, “Der Besuch im Atelier, um 1655,” in Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und
Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier, ed. Ekkehard Mai and Kurt Wettengl (Exh. cat. Munich, Haus
der Kunst; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum) (Wolfratshausen, 2002), 328.
3. A second painting of the same size by Van Mieris, The Broken Egg, has been wrongly
described as the pendant to Traveler at Rest. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681)
the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 45; see also Cornelia Moiso-Diekamp, Das Pendant
in der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 383, no. D 6;
and Quentin Buvelot, “The Resting Traveler,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin
Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle,2005), 98–100, no. 10.
4. For Kick’s painting, see: sale Zurich, Koller, 20 September 2013, no. 3063; sale Amsterdam,
Christie’s, 10 November 1992, no. 127. See also Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris(1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:45 and fig. 32; 2: 18; Angelika Lasius,
Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), 166–67, no. D 25. For Fabritius’s painting,see Gero Seelig in Frederick J. Duparc, Carel Fabritius 1622–1654 (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Schwerin, Staatliches Museum) (Zwolle, 2005), no. 12.
5. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:18–19,
however, proposed an interpretation that involved an emblematic reading of this motif thatsuggested that the traveler had not carefully considered his actions; followed in Quentin
Buvelot, “The Resting Traveler,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh.
cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005),
98–100, no. 10.
6. I would like to thank Otto Naumann and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for their generous andimportant input with regard to the interpretation of Traveler at Rest, as expressed in personalcorrespondence of February 2014.
7. Rolf Kultzen, Michael Sweerts: Brussels 1618–Goa 1664 (Doornspijk, 1996), no. 32; Guido
Jansen and Peter C. Sutton, Michael Sweerts (1618–1664) (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum)© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
Page 6 of 13(Zwolle, 2001), 77–79, no. 4, repr. Interestingly, the pose of Van Mieris’s protagonist issimilar to that of a resting traveler in a painting that Sweerts produced in Rome in about 1650.
See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:46
and fig. 39; Rolf Kultzen, Michael Brussels 1618–Goa 1664 (Doornspijk, 1996), no. 8.
8. Only in 1988, when the painting was restored after its acquisition by Otto Naumann, was it
discovered that the work is painted on a copper plate. Until then it had always been assumed
that the painting was on panel, beginning with John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of theWorks of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols. (London, 1829–42),
1:81, no. 79.
9. Isabel Horovitz, “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports,”
in Michael Komanecky et al., Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on
Copper, 1575–1775 (Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum; Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New York, 1998), 88 n. 41.
10. Copper, 15.3 x 12.2 cm (with auxiliary support: 21.5 x 18.2 cm), The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv.
598; see Ben Broos and Ariane van Suchtelen in Portraits in the Mauritshuis, 1430–1790,
ed. Quentin Buvelot (The Hague and Zwolle, 2004), no. 46, repr.
11. Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief
Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., etc., trans. Elizabeth
Eastlake, 3 vols. (London, 1854–57), 2: 200.
12. According to Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester
in 1857 (Exh. cat. Manchester, City Art Gallery) (London, 1857), 74, no. 1078; William Bürger
[Etienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré] Trésors d’art en Angleterre (Brussels, 1860, rev. ed.,Paris, 1865), 279; and 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,ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols. (London, 1907–28), originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 10: 28, no. 101, thepainting came from the Hoofman Collection. For this collection, see Adriaan van der Willigen,
Catalogus der schilderijen van Mejuffrouw Hoofman, unpublished manuscript, kept at theRKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History);see also Roeland van Eijnden and Adriaan van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche
schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIIIe eeuw, 4 vols. (Haarlem, 1816–40), 3: 396, 423, 482;
4: 309.
13. Catalogus eener uitmuntende verzameling van zeer schoone en kostbare schilderijen [J.
Hoofman and P. Quarles van Ufford], Amsterdam, 20 October 1818, passim; see also Ruud
Priem, “The ‘Most Excellent Collection’ of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years
1809–22,” Simiolus 25 (1997): 103–225, 183–84, nos. 2–3.
14. See Dianne Sachko Macleod, “Wells, William,” Oxford Dictionary.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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15. See Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857
(Exh. cat. Manchester, City Art Gallery) (London, 1857), 74, no. 1078. See also Francis
Haskell, Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England andFrance (Oxford, 1980), 157–80.

Provenance
Probably Jacob Hoofman, Haarlem, by 1799; by descent to Maria or Margaretha Hoofman,
Haarlem.
William Wells, Redleaf, Kent, by 1819 (sale, Christie’s, London, 12–13 May 1848, no. 85 [493guineas to Fuller]).
Sir Robert Staynor Holford (1808–92), Dorchester House, London, 1848, and by descent to
Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860–1926), Dorchester House, London (his sale, London;
Christie’s, London, 17–18 May 1928, no. 21 [504 guineas to Boehler]).
Giovanni Agnelli (1921–2003), Turin, until 1988 [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, from whomacquired by Diethelm Doll].
Diethelm Doll, Bad Godesberg, Bonn, 1988 [David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, from whomacquired by Eric Martin Wunsch].
Eric Martin Wunsch (1924–2013), New York (his sale, Christie’s, New York, 29 January
2014, no. 5).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
London, British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, “Exhibition of
Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Schools,” 1819, no. 34 [lent by William
Wells, Redleaf, Kent].
Manchester, City Art Gallery, “Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom,” 1857,
no. 1078 [lent by Sir Robert Staynor Holford].
London, Royal Academy of Arts, “Winter Exhibition: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters,
and by Deceased Masters of the British School,” January–March 1894, no. 49 [lent by Sir
George Lindsay Holford, London].
Leiden, Lakenhal Museum, “Fe?tes de Rembrandt a? Leyde: L’exposition de tableaux et dedessins de Rembrandt et d’autres maîtres de Leyde, du dix-septième siècle,” 15 July–15© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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September 1906, no. 27 [lent by Sir George Lindsay Holford, London].
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, “Winter Exhibition: Pictures and Other Objects of Art
Selected from the Collections of Mr. Robert Holford (1808–1892),” 1921–22, no. 35 [lent by
Sir George Lindsay Holford, London].
The Hague, The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, “Frans van Mieris 1635–1681: Painted
Perfection,” 1 October 2005–22 January 2006; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 26
February–21 May 2006, no. 10.
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017 [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].
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].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of 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 of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of Pictures of
the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Exh. cat. London, British Institution for
Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. London, 1819, no. 34.
Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of
Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. 2 vols. London,
1824, 1: 206.
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 1: 81, no. 79.
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief
Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., etc. Translated by Elizabeth© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
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Eastlake, 2: 200, 3 vols. London, 1854–57.
City Art Gallery. Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at
Manchester in 1857. Exh. cat. Manchester, City Art Gallery. London, 1857, 74, no. 1078.
Bürger, William [Etienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré]. Trésors d’Art en Angleterre. Paris, 1865,
279.
Champlin, John Denison, and Charles C. Perkins. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. 4
vols. New York, 1886–87, 3: 265.
Royal Academy of Arts. Winter Exhibition: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by
Deceased Masters of the British School Including Special Collections of the Works of Thomas
Stohard, R.A., of William Blake, and of John Pettie, R.A. Exh. cat. London, Royal Academy ofArts. London, 1894, 14, no. 49.
Roberts, William. Memorials of Christie’s: A Record of Art Sales from 1766–1896. 2 vols.
London, 1897, 2: 156.
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. Fêtes de Rembrandt à Leyde: Catalogue de l’exposition detableaux et de dessins de Rembrandt et d’autres maîtres de Leyde, du dix-septième siècle.
Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. Leiden, 1906, 12, no. 27.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon. 3 vols. Vienna and Leipzig,
1906–11, 2: 195.
Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et à l’éntranger pendant les
XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. 7 vols. Paris, 1911–12, 5:187.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912. 5 vols. New York, 1913, 2:
777–78.
Graves, Algernon. Art Sales From Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the TwentiethCentury. 3 vols. London, 1918–21, 2: 220.
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Pictures and Other Objects of Art Selected from theCollections of Mr. Robert Holford (1808–1892) mainly from Westonbirt in Gloucestershire.
Exh. cat. London, Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1921, 26, no. 35.
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. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 10: 28, no. 101. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Benson, Robert. The Holford Collection: Dorchester House. 2 vols. London, 1927, 2: 32, no.
156.
Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs,
Dessinateurs et Graveurs. 10 vols. Paris, 1953, 4:117.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981, 1: 44–46;© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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2: 18–19, no. 16.
Moiso-Diekamp, Cornelia. Das Pendant in der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts,
Frankfurt am Main, 1987, 383, no. D6.
Buvelot, Quentin. “Le Repo devant l’auberge.” In Tableaux flamands et hollandais du MuseéFabre de Montpellier. Edited by Quentin Buvelot, Michel Hilaire, and Oliver Zeder, 195, no. 6.
Exh. cat. Paris, Netherlands Institute; Montpellier, Fabre Museum. Paris and Montpellier,
1998.
Horowitz, Isabel. “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper
Supports.” In Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper,
1575–1775. Edited by Michael Komanecky, 88, n. 41. Exh. cat. Phoenix, Phoenix Art
Museum; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; The Hague, Mauritshuis. New York,1999.
Laabs, Annegret, and Christoph Scho?lzel. Von der lustvollen Betrachtung der Bilder:
Leidener Feinmaler in der Dresdener Gemäldegalerie. Exh. cat. Dresden, Old Masters
Picture Gallery. Leipzig, 2000, 65, 67, n. 120.
Laabs, Annegret and Christoph Scho?lzel. The Leiden fijnschilders from Dresden. Edited by
Christiaan Vogelaar, 69, n. 18. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle,
2000.
Beaujean, Dieter. “Der Besuch im Atelier, um 1655.” In Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und
Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier. Edited by Ekkehard Mai and Kurt Wettengl, 328. Exh. cat.
Munich, Haus der Kunst; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum. Wolfratshausen, 2002.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Editedby Quentin Buvelot, 98–100, no. 10, 232, no. 16. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington, National Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 2005.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Traveler at Rest.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of
Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 2017, 46, no. 13. Exh. cat. Paris,
Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Traveler at Rest.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 102; 187, no. 41.
Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017): front cover.
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, 116–17.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Traveler at Rest.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 134–35; 238, no. 34.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Traveler at Rest
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of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,
Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the
Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the GoldenAge.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 43.
Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden
Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 136–7, no. 61. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Copy after Frans van Mieris the Elder, A Traveler at Rest, oil on panel, 21.5 x 17.5 cm,current whereabouts unknown; formerly J. Borie (his sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 21 March
1977, no. 5); G. Tournier (his sale, Palais d’Orsay, Paris, 8 December 1977, no. 11, as by
Ary de Vois).

Technical Summary
The painting was examined in normal and ultraviolet light, without the benefit of X-radiographs,
infrared reflectography or microscopy.
The support is a thin metal plate, estimated to be copper possibly with a coating of gold.[1] It has
been adhered to a wooden panel with a vertical grain and thin wooden strips have been added to
all four edges, creating a collar. A cradle has been attached to the back of the panel.
The ground is either extremely thin or non-existent. The paint was applied wet-into-wet with thelights and darkest darks painted on top of the mid-tones. The artist layered fine, delicate strokes
on top of one another, dragging paint from the lower layer to blend the colors. He used broader© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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strokes in the background and very fine strokes in the figure. The foliage was painted in thinglazes. A 1.0cm high dark brown strip, which may be a later addition, was painted along thebottom edge.
The copper is in plane, though there are slight indentations in the upper right quadrant and in thesitter’s proper left thigh. A wavy, indented line is visible along the bottom but this may be in thepaint or varnish.There is an extremely find craquelure pattern throughout the paint, which is more
visible in the darks. Tiny paint losses mark the intersections of the cracks in the background.
There are losses in the sitter’s proper left sleeve, proper right chest and shoulder, and in the sky
in the arch.
The support is a thin metal plate that is estimated to be copper. A small area of the plate is
exposed in the bottom right corner, revealing a copper color. It may be coated with gold. It has
been adhered, presumably with glue, to a wooden panel with a vertical grain. Wooden strips havebeen added to all four edges, creating a collar, so that the edges and back of the plate arecompletely obscured. A cradle with three vertical members and three horizontal member was
attached to the back of the panel. The cradle extends onto the wooden strips.
Either a very thin ground or no ground is present. In cracks and areas of loss the copper plate is
exposed and no ground is visible. However, the painting has a slightly lumpy, grainy texture. It is
unclear if this is indicative of a ground or if the texture is in the plate and/or the paint.
The paint is estimated to be oil, though no analysis has been done. It was painted wet-into-wet
with the lights and darkest darks painted on top of the mid-tones. The artist layered fine, delicate
strokes on top of one another, dragging paint from the lower layer to blend the colors. He usedbroader strokes in the background and very fine strokes in the figure. The foliage was painted inthin glazes. A dark brown strip, approximately 1.0 cm high, was painted along the bottom edge. It
is unclear if this was a later addition.
The painting is coated with a natural resin varnish.
The copper plate is stable and remains in mostly in plane. There is a slight indentation in theupper right quadrant. The indentation measures approximately 2cm by 4 cm. Another small
indentation is found in the sitter’s proper left thigh. A wavy, indented line is visible along thebottom but it is unclear if this indentation is in the paint, the varnish or the copper plate.
An extremely fine craquelure pattern extends throughout the paint, though it is more visible in thedarks. A fair number of tiny paint losses mark the intersections of the cracks in the background,especially in the upper left quadrant, and in the sitter’s dark sleeves. There is a cluster of small
losses in the sitter’s proper left sleeve near his elbow. Additional losses are found in the sitter’s
proper right chest and shoulder, above his hat. A larger loss is located in the sky in the arch.
The varnish is slightly thick, but it remains clear and even.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Traveler at Rest
Page 13 of 13

1. Isabel Horovitz, “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports,”
in Michael K. Komanecky et al., Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings
on Copper, 1575-1775 (Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City; Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague) (New York, 1999), 88 n. 41.
Horovitz states that Charlotte Hale of the Metropolitan Museum of Art communicated that the
support had a layer of gold leaf over the copper.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection