Bust of an Old Man
Attributed to Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1640–45
oil on oval panel
20.4 x 17.8 cm
JvS-101© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old Man
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How to cite
Van Tuinen, Ilona. “Bust of an Old Man” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archivedDecember 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

This little oval painting barely measures the size of a human hand, yet its powerful,Comparative Figuresbust-length representation of an old man with piercing eyes operates like a magnetic
force: it commands our attention and pulls us closer, imploring us to return the man’s
gaze with equal intensity. Illuminated by a strong light coming from the upper left,
the man’s face is turned toward us, the shimmering highlights of his short, silver hair,long moustache, and modest beard in contrast with the dark background. His rather
unassuming attire consists of a nondescript brown coat over a blue shirt and a simple

Fig 1. Detail of Bust of an Old Man,
JvS-101, showing the forehead withrich impasto highlights

pleated white collar, the strings of which are carelessly resting on his clothing rather
than tucked away. The informality of this little painting indicates that this is not acommissioned portrait, but a tronie, a study of a facial type or expression. Indeed, theold man’s exceptionally stern look and furrowed brow betray an individual with astrong character.
With impeccable mastery, this tronie appears to have been executed quickly. The
artist merely indicated the contours of the sitter’s proper left ear, which is entirely inthe dark, and used a single brushstroke to suggest the presence of his right one.
Instead, he focused on the intricate reflections of light on the man’s aged skin. With
swift strokes of a relatively broad brush he built up the cheeks by alternating brown
and creamy pink hues. He used a slightly thinner brush for the single dark brown line
above the man’s proper right eye. For the man’s impressive furrows between his eyes,
the artist applied broad strokes of flesh tones and slightly thinner strokes of darker
paint for the shadows in between the wrinkles. He executed the forehead in a richFig 2. Gerrit Dou, Bust of a Bearded
Man, ca. 1642–45, oil on panel, 18.4 x
14.9 cm, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Corcoran Collection(William A. Clark Collection),
2014.136.32

impasto of pinks and creams, culminating in the protruding white highlights justbelow the hairline (fig 1). Unlike these intact paint layers, the dark areas of thepainting have suffered from abrasion due to over-cleaning, particularly in the man’s© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old Man
Page 3 of 8clothing, the pupils of his eyes, and along the peripheries of the background.[1] Theabrasion in the mantle reveals the sketchy brushwork of an earlier paint stage,
probably the undermodeling.
This unpublished work was unknown until it appeared on the art market in 2003 as
attributed to Jan van Staveren (1613/14–69), a presumed student of Gerrit Dou(1613–75).[2] It is, however, highly unlikely that Van Staveren, with his smoothbrushwork and somewhat wooden figures, is the artist who made this loosely painted,
vivacious bust.[3] The appearance of the old man certainly differs from Van Staveren’s
generally fantastical tronies, in which the sitters’ features and expressions are moregeneric.[4] The sitter instead resembles Gerrit Dou’s small, oval Bust of a Bearded
Man, dated ca. 1642–45, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (formerlyat the Corcoran Gallery of Art) (fig 2).[5] The man in the latter painting in fact has thesame strong nose, bushy grey beard, long mustache, deep-set eyes, and pronounced

Fig 3. Gerrit Dou, Schoolmaster, 1645,
oil on panel, 27 x 19.4 cm, FitzwilliamMuseum, Cambridge, inv. no. 33, ©
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

brow, leaving no doubt that the two paintings are of the same sitter.
The Washington, D.C. tronie is one of Dou’s most informal, freely executed paintings,
but it is still more refined than the Leiden Collection painting. Unlike the latter work,with its thick, patchy strokes, Dou modeled the Washington painting using his
characteristic short, individual brushstrokes. The hair and beard of the man depictedin that painting were also rendered more carefully, and one can distinguish individual
strands of grey curls.[6] There are, however, also some important similarities between
these works. The handling of the shaded sides of the two faces and the indication of
the proper left ears are almost identical in both paintings; moreover, alternating
brown and cream hues were used to model the wrinkles in between the eyes. Thesecorrelations, together with the high quality of the present painting and the immediacyof the portrait, make it plausible that Dou also painted this work. If so, Dou here

Fig 4. Gerrit Dou, Self-Portrait
Holding a Portrait of His Parents andBrother, ca. 1649, oil on panel, 27 x 23
cm, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum,Braunschweig

appears to have captured the sitter in a quick, initial sketch, before executing themore thought out Washington painting, which would explain the slight differences inpainting technique.[7]The sitter depicted in both tronies can also be recognized in Dou’s Schoolmaster, 1645,
in which an old teacher, surrounded by the children he is helping to read, looks
directly at the viewer (fig 3).[8] The stern expression and position of the man’s headare identical to those in the Leiden Collection panel. Dou may well have referred to
the latter painting when executing Schoolmaster, using it as a reference point for theteacher’s facial expression.
Traditionally, the model in the Washington painting has been identified as Dou’sfather, the glass painter Douwe Jansz (ca. 1584–1656).[9] The appearance of his father

Fig 5. Detail of Gerrit Dou, SelfPortrait Holding a Portrait of His
Parents and Brother, ca. 1649, oil onpanel, 27 x 23 cm, Herzog Anton
Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig

is known from Dou’s Self-Portrait, ca. 1649, in Braunschweig, in which the artist
holds a small portrait of his parents and brother (fig 4) (fig 5).[10] Although scholars© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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have expressed some doubt as to whether the sitter in the Washington painting isidentical to that in the family portrait, the two men have similar facial features,
including the pronounced, straight nose, deep-set eyes, beard, and moustache.[11] The
similarities are even more pronounced between the sitters in the Leiden Collection
tronie and the Braunschweig painting, since both men face the viewer and wear
similar collars. In the early 1640s, when the Leiden Collection and Washington
paintings were executed, Douwe Jansz would have been in his late fifties or earlysixties, an age that corresponds with the age of the sitter in each work.[12] It seems
appropriate to reconsider the traditional identification of this sitter as Dou’s father, anidentification that would help to explain the intimate character of the work. Dou may
well have been able to render this figure so expressively because he knew the sitter sowell.[13]At least two nearly identical versions of the painting exist. The first was offered forsale at a 1900 auction in Florence, with a mistaken attribution to Ferdinand Bol(1616–80).[14] The second was in the Sir Charles Turner Collection as by Thomas deKeyser (1596–1667) until 1908, after which Abraham Bredius attributed it toDou.[15] A third painting, formerly in the Baron van der Felz Collection, is a free copy
after the Washington painting, in which the sitter is facing left and directed at theviewer, with an expression strikingly similar to the Leiden Collection
panel.[16] Unfortunately, the locations of these paintings are unknown, making any
kind of stylistic comparison impossible. Judging from old photographs, however,these works appear to be flatter in execution and more generic than the present work,
which suggests that the Leiden Collection panel is, indeed, the original.

- Ilona van Tuinen, 2017© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old Man
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. See the Technical Summary. Annette Rupprecht observes that in these dark passages, small spots ofground and bare wood have been exposed. It is not known when this damaging treatment took place.
2. Sale, Christie’s, London, 12 December 2003, no. 42 (unsold). On the relationship between Jan van
Staveren and Gerrit Dou, see Piet Bakker’s biography on the former in this catalogue.
3. See, for instance, the signed Jan van Staveren painting in this catalogue, Esther before Ahasuerus,
JvS-100, in which the paint is applied more evenly and meticulously and in which the pointed facial
types differ greatly from the features of this man.
4. See for instance, Tronie of an Old Man in a Turban, attributed to Van Staveren (sale, Bonhams, London,
5 May 2006, no. 45).
5. Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York
University, 1990), no. 39; eadem, “Bust of a Man,” in Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master
Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., NationalGallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 84–85,
no. 11. Many thanks to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Dominique Surh for mentioning the Washington
painting in relation to the painting discussed here.
6. For a discussion of Dou’s technique in this painting, see Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” 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) (New Haven, 2000), 84–85, no. 11.
7. I am indebted to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for the conversations we had about this work and for hissuggestion of an attribution to Dou. I would like to extend my thanks to Ronni Baer for generously
conveying her opinion on the attribution of this painting (e-mail correspondence of July 2014 on file atthe Leiden Collection, New York). Baer places the work in the circle of Dou. She notes that Bust of anOld Man comes closest in execution to Bust of an Old Woman in Brodick Castle (oil on panel with anarched top, 11.5 x 8.7 cm, Isle of Arran [Scotland], Brodick Castle, National Trust for Scotland; seeRonni Baer, “Old Woman,” “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou [1613–1675]” [PhD diss. New York
University, 1990], no. 32, where Baer dates the work to ca. 1640), especially in the “broad sketchinessof the garment,” but that the “scale of the brushwork is different,” especially since the Leiden Collection
work does not contain the “multi-hued, very small, individual brushstrokes.”
8. See Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age ofRembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London,
Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 84–85, no. 11.
9. For a discussion of this conception, initiated by John Smith in 1829 and supported by Wilhelm Martin,see Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Bust of an Old ManPage 6 of 8University, 1990), no. 39; Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: MasterPainter in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington, National Gallery ofArt; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 84–85, no. 11.
10. See Ronni Baer, “Self-Portrait,” in “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York
University, 1990), no. 56.
11. For scholars who have expressed their doubts about this identification, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “AReappraisal of Gerard Dou’s Reputation,” in The William A. Clark Collection: An Exhibition Marking the50th Anniversary of the Clark Collection at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., TheCorcoran Gallery of Art) (Washington, D.C., 1978), 61; Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in “The Paintingsof Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), no. 39; eadem, “Bust of a Man,”in Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou 1613–1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. WheelockJr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague,Mauritshuis) (New Haven, 2000), 84–85, no. 11.
12. See Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New YorkUniversity, 1990), no. 39, who suggests that the Braunschweig painting might well have been acommemorative painting, executed ca. 1649, after the deaths of Dou’s mother in 1647 and Dou’s brotherin 1649. This would help to explain why Dou’s father, with his dark rather than grey hair, looks younger
than his age in 1649, and younger than in the New York and Washington paintings.
13. By comparison, when we see Dou’s drawn oval portrait of his mother, signed and dated 1638, her strong
gaze, full of character and depth, is equally striking. See Gerrit Dou, Portrait of the Artist’s Mother,
1638, black chalk and ink with white highlights, 19.1 x 16.8 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. 22.579,
published in Frits Lugt, Musée du Louvre: Inventaire Général des Dessins des Ecoles du Nord, 3 vols.
(Paris, 1929), 34, no. 248.
14. Bust of a Middle-Aged Man, dating, technique, and measurements unknown, formerly in the Princess
Marie Wassilievna Woronzow Collection (her sale, Florence, Sambon, 23 April 1900, no. 465). AlbertBlankert rejected the attribution to Bol, see Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680): Rembrandt’s
Pupil (Doornspijk, 1982), no. R 158, under “Rejected Attributions.” There are a few very small
differences between the present work and the panel auctioned in Florence, such as the position of theman’s collar and the height of his head.
15. Bust of a Man, oil on oval panel, 18 x 14.5 cm, formerly in the Sir Charles Turner Collection (his sale,Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, 17 November 1908, no. 37). This painting, if the measurements are correct, isslightly smaller than the Leiden Collection work. Other differences are the distance between the man’shead and the edge of the painting at top right. According to a note on the RKD photo mount, thispainting was last seen at art dealer E. Burg Berger in Berlin in ca. 1943. The same mount records thatAbraham Bredius thought the painting to be by Dou.
16. Bust of a Man, technique and measurements unknown, formerly in the L. A. S. J. Baron van der Felz
Collection in Brummen, the Netherlands. See also Ronni Baer, “Bust of a Man,” in “The Paintings ofGerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), no. 39, who was the first to list this© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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painting as a free copy after the former Corcoran work (now at the National Gallery of Art).

Provenance(Sale, Christie’s, London, 12 December 2003, no. 42 (unsold); [The Weiss Gallery, London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner, 2004.

References
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 17; 28, n. 5.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine
Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Formerly attributed to Ferdinand Bol, Bust of a Middle-Aged Man, dating, technique, and measurements
unknown, formerly in the Princess Marie Wassilievna Woronzow Collection (her sale, Florence,Sambon, 23 April 1900, no. 465).

2. Formerly attributed to Thomas de Keijser, Bust of a Middle-Aged Man, oil on oval panel, 18 x 14.5 cm,
formerly in the Sir Charles Turner Collection (his sale, Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, 17 November 1908, no.
37).

Technical Summary
The support, a single oval plank of vertically grained oak, is unthinned and uncradled and has hand toolmarks and machine tool marks.[1] A horizontally oriented bevel cuts across the upper midpoint and an oval
shaped bevel follows the circumference of the remaining plank. There is a black stencil, a black inscription,
white chalk, blue tape, and white label remnants but no import stamp or panel maker’s mark along the panel© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Bust of an Old Man
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A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. An additional light-colored fill material appears tohave been previously applied to the thickness of the entire outer edge of the oval panel. Narrow crescents of
the light-colored fill, which have been toned brown, are present along the thickness of the left and right paneledges. The upper and lower edges have been trimmed, the fill material removed, and the bare wood exposed.
The paint along the background and garment is fairly thin, while a halo of opaque denser paint surrounds thefigure’s head. The flesh tones and horizontal brush strokes that create the creases of the brow, mustache, andwhite collar have been applied with slightly raised brushwork.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at 750–1000
nanometers or in the X-radiograph.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2003 and remains in a fairstate of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection