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© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. “Woman Reading a Book by a Window” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 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.

© 2024 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 their domestic

Comparative Figuresscenes and high-life interiors, began his career painting an entirely different type ofsubject. Metsu initially painted subjects drawn from the bible or mythology, much asdid 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 to domestic subjects. For none of these young
masters did the change from one subject type to another occur overnight. Theirthematic 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 andhistory painting traditions. Even though this painting appears, at first glance, to be amerry company scene, it has thematic connections to the parable of the Prodigal
Son.[1] Similarly, Woman Reading a Book by a Window, which dates to the artist’s late

Fig 1. Ferdinand Bol, A Woman at aWindow, early 1650s, oil on canvas,
100 x 84.5 cm, State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. 769

Leiden period, about 1653–54, is a transitional piece in Metsu’s career. While thislarge picture appears to be a scene drawn from daily life, it probably derives from aliterary or allegorical source.
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, she stares out into theworld as though contemplating an idea she has just taken from the text of the open
book before her.[2] Her distinctive wardrobe—a voluminous rusty-red cloak, loosefitting white shirt, and black feathered beret—would have indicated to a seventeenthcentury viewer that she was not a contemporary Dutch sitter, but a figure drawn froma different time and place. Metsu’s painting, in fact, calls to mind works by Ferdinand
Bol (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

Fig 2. Salomon de Bray, Portrait of aWoman as Semiramis(?), 1652, oil on
panel, 99.5 x 83.5 cm, Frans HalsMuseum, Haarlem, OS I-687

comparison can be made with a painting dated 1652 by the Haarlem artist Salomon deBray (1597–1664), which is a portrait historié of a woman probably in the guise ofSemiramis (fig 2).[4] The similarities in costume between the women in Metsu’s and
De Bray’s paintings are striking; 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 probablyrepresents an allegorical figure. Seventeenth-century artists frequently modernizedtraditional allegories by placing them in contemporary interiors, 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 allegorical figures, Dutch artists generally
consulted Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1593), an influential emblem book that explains
how abstract concepts, such as virtues and vices, could be personified. Ripa publishedFig 3. Gabriel Metsu, Moneylender
Visited by a Weeping Woman, 1654,
oil on canvas, 74 x 67.2 cm, Museumof Fine Arts, Boston, Sydney Bartlett
bequest, 89.501

the first edition of his seminal work in Italian in Rome in 1593, but Metsu was likely© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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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, that are not to be found in Metsu’s painting.[8] Hence, eventhough 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 earlyartistic development. It is the earliest surviving painting in which the artist depicted acontemporary 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 a backdrop to the figure, the setting is comparable to those
depicted by other Leiden genre painters of the mid-seventeenth century. Thesegenerally focus on the left corner of a shallow room with the back wall runningparallel to the picture plane and a window that allows natural light to illuminate theinterior. 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 thewoman’s head. It is only one of two works that the artist inscribed with 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

© 2024 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 biblical subject 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 thewords either (personal communication, 2013). The same or a similar striped carpet appears in otherMetsu 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 [New Haven, 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, see Pieter
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 that the woman
is a figure type Metsu included often in his early works, among them A Moneylender Visited by aWeeping 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 aportrait of a woman in extravagant dress.
6. For Molenaer’s painting’s, see Dennis P. Weller, ed., Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of the Dutch 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 of Art, 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’s woman), but alsomentions that she is depicted with an hourglass and a birdcage with a parrot on top of it. Ripa mentions
that Cognitione requires a torch not only to see what she is reading, but also to illuminate her intellect(ibid., 273). Perhaps Metsu modernized the scene by replacing the torch with an open window, whichallows the natural light of the sun to serve as her source of physical and spiritual illumination.
9. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 207, no.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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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 71florins to Héris]).
Comte F. de Robiano (1778–1836), Brussels (his sale, Brussels, 1 May 1837, no. 439 [for 630 francs toGuillaume 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 Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12
December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012, no. 26 [lentby the present owner].
Williamstown, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, “An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 5 March–17 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, “An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 17 April–25 July 2021, no. 4 [lent by the present owner].
San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, “Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 21 September–31 December 2022 [lent by the present owner].

© 2024 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 translated by Edward G. Hawke, 1:275, no. 72. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis
der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 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-Ausstellung von Gemälde Alter Meister aus Frankfurter Privatbesitz.” Künst undKünstler 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 theGolden 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 Age ofVermeer. 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.
Capern, Amanda. “Literature and Letters.” In The Routledge History of Women in Early Modern Europe.
Edited by Amanda Capern, 418–19, fig. 16. New York, 2020.
Moqtaderi, Heather. “Introduction: Pulling Back the Curtain.” In An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 7, 13, 16, no. 4. Exh. cat.
Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 2021.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Embracing an Inner World in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting.” In
An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara
Yeager-Crasselt, 18–19, 27–28, no. 4. Exh. cat. Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University ofPennsylvania. Philadelphia, 2021.
Brisman, Shira. “Private Life and Public Record in Two Paintings by Gabriel Metsu.” In An Inner
World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara YeagerCrasselt, 34–37, 43, no. 4. Exh. cat. Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia, 2021.
Dickey, Stephanie S. “Powerful Women.” In Rembrandt in Amsterdam. Creativity and Competition.
Edited by Stephanie S. Dickey and Jochen Sander, 193, 194, fig. 8.4, 195n20. Exh. cat. Ottawa,© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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National Gallery of Canada; Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum. New Haven, 2021.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre
Painting. Exh. brochure. San Diego, Timken Museum of Art. San Diego, 2022, fig. 10.

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 fabricinserts have been added to both upper corners to create a rectangular format. The support has been lined as arectangle, and the composition has been extended onto the inserts.[1] There are two stencils, three importstamps, 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-radiograph along the entire rightvertical edge but not the left suggests the right side of the composition has not been altered in width, and it isunlikely that the two outer arches were ever of similar widths. Pronounced cusping along the lower edge andslight cusping along the center of the upper edge suggest the composition has not been significantly altered inheight.
A light-colored radio-opaque ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been appliedsmoothly 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 plume are reticulated and appear
medium rich.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images at 780–1000 nanometers. The images suggest a slightshift in position of the figure’s profile, from her proper right eye to between her lips, and to the swag of haircascading 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 leftof 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.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection