Woman Reading a Book by a Window
Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)ca. 1653–54
oil on canvas
105 x 90.7 cm
signed in dark paint on white letter, left of red
plume: “[F?] Gabriel/Metsu”
GM-105© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading a Book by a Window
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How to cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Woman Reading a Book by a Window” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nded. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-womanreading-a-letter-by-a-window/ (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

Woman Reading a Book by a Window
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Gabriel Metsu, like a number of other Dutch artists renowned for theirComparative Figures

domestic scenes and high-life interiors, began his career painting an entirely
different type of subject. Metsu initially painted subjects drawn from the bible
or mythology, much as did Nicolaes Maes (1634–93) and Johannes Vermeer(1632–75). Another artist who shifted from one genre to another was Pieter
de Hooch (1629–84), who depicted guardroom scenes before switching todomestic subjects. For none of these young masters did the change fromone subject type to another occur overnight. Their thematic and stylistic
evolution was an ongoing process as they learned to balance their artistic
aspirations, inherent strengths, and the changing character of the art market.
Vermeer’s Procuress of 1656 is a case in point, for it relates both to genre
and history painting traditions. Even though this painting appears, at firstglance, to be a merry company scene, it has thematic connections to theparable of the Prodigal Son.[1] Similarly, Woman Reading a Book by aFig 1. Ferdinand Bol, A Woman ata Window, early 1650s, oil oncanvas, 100 x 84.5 cm, State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, inv. 769

Window, which dates to the artist’s late Leiden period, about 1653–54, is atransitional piece in Metsu’s career. While this large picture appears to be ascene drawn from daily life, it probably derives from a literary or allegoricalsource.
In this painting, Metsu has depicted a life-sized woman seated next to an
open window. Leaning on a small table covered with a striped carpet, shestares out into the world as though contemplating an idea she has just takenfrom the text of the open book before her.[2] Her distinctive wardrobe—avoluminous rusty-red cloak, loose-fitting white shirt, and black feathered
beret—would have indicated to a seventeenth-century viewer that she was nota contemporary Dutch sitter, but a figure drawn from a different time andplace. Metsu’s painting, in fact, calls to mind works by Ferdinand Bol

Fig 2. Salomon de Bray, Portrait ofa Woman as Semiramis(?), 1652,
oil on panel, 99.5 x 83.5 cm, Frans
Hals Museum, Haarlem, OS I-687(1616–80) from the early 1650s that depict attractive female figures in“antique” attire, which may best be described as half-length tronies (fig 1).
[3]

An even closer comparison can be made with a painting dated 1652 by theHaarlem artist Salomon de Bray (1597–1664), which is a portrait historié of awoman probably in the guise of Semiramis (fig 2).[4] The similarities incostume between the women in Metsu’s and De Bray’s paintings arestriking; however, the large book makes it unlikely that Metsu’s sitter also
depicts the Assyrian queen.[5]Rather than a half-length tronie or a portrait historié, Metsu’s woman
probably represents an allegorical figure. Seventeenth-century artists
frequently modernized traditional allegories by placing them in contemporaryFig 3. Gabriel Metsu, Moneylender
Visited by a Weeping Woman,1654, oil on canvas, 74 x 67.2 cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
Sydney Bartlett bequest, 89.501© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading a Book by a Window
Page 4 of 8interiors, as, for example, did Jan Miense Molenaer (1610–68) in A Lady at
Her Toilet (Lady World) and Vermeer in Allegory of Faith.[6] When painting
allegoricalfigures,Dutch

artists

generallyconsulted

CesareRipa’s Iconologia (1593), an influential emblem book that explains how
abstract concepts, such as virtues and vices, could be personified. Ripa
published the first edition of his seminal work in Italian in Rome in 1593, but
Metsu was likely familiar with the Dutch edition, which had been translated
by Dirck Pers in 1644. Ripa’s book describes and illustrates various female
personifications with books, including Wisdom, Philosophy, Rhetoric,
Eloquence, and Knowledge.[7] Ripa, however, always includes additional
attributes with these personifications, among them a birdcage or a torch, thatare not to be found in Metsu’s painting.[8] Hence, even though it seems
probable that Metsu intended his female figure to be an allegoricalpersonification of an abstract concept related to learning or knowledge, it is
not yet possible to interpret exactly his intent.
Woman Reading a Book by a Window occupies a significant place in
Metsu’s early artistic development. It is the earliest surviving painting inwhich the artist depicted a contemporary Dutch interior. Prior to this time,
Metsu had painted only outdoor scenes and imaginary interiors of sandstone
palaces, churches and brothels. Although this interior serves only as abackdrop to the figure, the setting is comparable to those depicted by otherLeiden genre painters of the mid-seventeenth century. These generally focus
on the left corner of a shallow room with the back wall running parallel to thepicture plane and a window that allows natural light to illuminate the interior.
Confident with what he had achieved in Woman Reading a Book by aWindow, Metsu went a step further in A Moneylender Visited by a Weeping
Woman (fig 3), which shows a larger and more elaborate interior.
Metsu signed this painting Gabriel/Metsu on a letter stuck in a window bar
behind the woman’s head. It is only one of two works that the artist inscribedwith his full name. The other painting, A Woman Giving Alms to a Boy, dates
to 1657–59.[9] Metsu usually signed his works Gmetsu (G and m in ligature)or G.Metsu.

- Adriaan Waiboer, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading a Book by a Window
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

1. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Vermeer (New York, 1981), 70, ill., suggested that the biblicalsubject of the Prodigal Son underlies Vermeer’s Procuress, 1656, oil on canvas,Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden.
2. It is impossible to decipher the text of the book. Adri Mackor, who is preparing a doctoral
dissertation (University of Ghent) on the work of Marinus van Reymerswaele (ca. 1490–ca.
1546) and who has developed a proficiency in reading inscriptions on painted documents,
has not been able to read the words either (personal communication, 2013). The same or asimilar striped carpet appears in other Metsu works of the mid-1650s, including A
Moneylender Visited by a Weeping Woman (fig. 3), and two versions of A Woman at Her
Toilet (see Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné [NewHaven, 2012], 180, nos. A-28, A-29, both ill.).
3. For Bol’s other paintings, see Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s Pupil(Doornspijk, 1982), 141, no. 134, pl. 143; no. 135, pl. 144; no. 136, pl. 143.
4. On De Bray’s painting and the identification of the woman as possibly being Semiramis, seePieter Biesboer, ed., Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th-Century Holland(Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery) (Zwolle, 2008),
51–52.
5. Further indicating that Woman Reading a Book by a Window is not a portrait is the fact thatthe woman is a figure type Metsu included often in his early works, among them A
Moneylender Visited by a Weeping Woman (fig. 3). Franklin W. Robinson, Gabriel Metsu(1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age (New York,1974), 19, proposed that the painting is probably a portrait of a woman in extravagant dress.
6. For Molenaer’s painting’s, see Dennis P. Weller, ed., Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of theDutch Golden Age (Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Columbus, Indianapolis
Museum of Art; Manchester, N.H., Currier Museum of Art) (Raleigh, 2002), 100–2, no. 12, ill.;for Vermeer’s painting, see Walter Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, 2 vols (New York, 2007), 2:893–902, no. 206, ill.
7. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, of uytbeeldingen des verstands […], trans. Dirck P. Pers(Amsterdam, 1644), 273 (Cognitione); 406 (Philosophia); 435 (Rettorica); 595 (Eloquenza);
620–21 (Sapienza).
8. For example, Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, of uytbeeldingen des verstands […], trans. Dirck P.
Pers (Amsterdam, 1644), 595, describes Eloquenza as a woman dressed in red (like Metsu’swoman), but also mentions that she is depicted with an hourglass and a birdcage with aparrot on top of it. Ripa mentions that Cognitione requires a torch not only to see what she is© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading a Book by a WindowPage 6 of 8reading, but also to illuminate her intellect (ibid., 273). Perhaps Metsu modernized the scene
by replacing the torch with an open window, which allows the natural light of the sun to serveas her source of physical and spiritual illumination.
9. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven,2012), 207, no. A-63, ill.

Provenance(Sale, H. D. G. de Marée and W. Horstink, Haarlem, 12 May 1817, no. 96 [for 260 florins toEngesmet]).
A. B. Roothaan, Amsterdam (his sale, De Vries … Roos, Amsterdam, 29 March 1826, no. 56[for 71 florins to Héris]).
Comte F. de Robiano (1778–1836), Brussels (his sale, Brussels, 1 May 1837, no. 439 [for630 francs to Guillaume van Callenbergh]).
Charles Scarisbrick (1800–61), Lancashire (his sale, Christie’s, London, 24–25 May 1861,
no. 91, as A. G. Metzu [for £35.14 pounds to Peane]).
[Kleinberger Galleries, Paris and New York, by June 1922; Riesler; Kunsthandel Z. M.
Hackenbroch, Frankfurt, before 1925].
Dr. Albert Hahn (1889–1968), Frankfurt, by 1925; by descent to the heirs of Hahn (sale,Christie’s, London, 7 December 2006, no. 3 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London, 2006]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, “Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus
Privatbesitz,” Summer 1925, no. 138 [lent by Dr. Albert Hahn].
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connectionin the Age of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art, 27
October–12 December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14March 2012, no. 26 [lent by the present owner].
Williamstown, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, “An Inner World: SeventeenthCentury Dutch Genre Painting,” 5 March–17 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading a Book by a Window
Page 7 of 8References
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, 1: 275, no. 72. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published asBeschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Swarzenski, Georg. Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus Privatbesitz. Exh. cat.
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut. Frankfurt, 1925, 47–48, no. 138.
Waldman,Emil.

“Leih-AusstellungvonGemälde

Alter

Meister

ausFrankfurter

Privatbesitz.” Künst und Künstler 23 (1925): 482, 484–85.
Plietzsch, Eduard. “Gabriel Metsu.” Pantheon 17 (1936): 6, 8.
Robinson, Franklin, W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre
Painting of the Golden Age. New York, 1974, 19, 106, fig. 8.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work.” 4 vols. PhD diss. New
York University, 2007, 1:97–98, 396–98, no. A-13, 4:1062.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “A Woman at a Book with a Window.” In Human Connections in the Ageof Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Daniëlle H.A.C. Lokin, 96–97, no. 26. Exh.
cat. Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art; Tokyo, Bunkamura
Museum of Art. London, 2011.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven,
2012, 26, 171, no. A-14.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed,
has been lined. The upper edge has been cut and forms three arched lobes of varying widths.
Diagonal-weave fabric inserts have been added to both upper corners to create a rectangularformat. The support has been lined as a rectangle, and the composition has been extended onto
the inserts.[1] There are two stencils, three import stamps, and white chalk numerals but no wax
collection seals along the lining or stretcher.
The 48.5 cm-wide central arch over the figure’s head is cut straight horizontally at the midpoint.
The left arch is 26 cm wide and the right arch 15 cm wide. Cusping visible in the X-radiographalong the entire right vertical edge but not the left suggests the right side of the composition has
not been altered in width, and it is unlikely that the two outer arches were ever of similar widths.
Pronounced cusping along the lower edge and slight cusping along the center of the upper edge
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suggest the composition has not been significantly altered in height.
A light-colored radio-opaque ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been
applied smoothly aside from the white drapery and books, which have been applied in low
impasto with visible brushwork. Dark passages along the figure’s red drapery and red hat plumeare reticulated and appear medium rich.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images at 780–1000 nanometers. The images
suggest a slight shift in position of the figure’s profile, from her proper right eye to between herlips, and to the swag of hair cascading down her proper left shoulder.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the white letter tucked along the ironwork of the window
to the left of the red plume of the figure’s hat. The letter with the flourish that precedes “Gabriel”
is indistinct. The painting is undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2007 and remains in an excellent state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. If the lining is removed or replaced, stretcher bar marks along the support reverse may reveal
valuable information regarding its original shape.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection