© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Man Praying
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Old Man Praying

ca. 1665–70

Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

oil on panel
18 x 12.7 cm
signed in dark paint along right edge: “GDOU”(GD in ligature)
GD-107
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Surh, Dominique. "Old Man Praying." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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Old Man Praying
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Despite the dynamic, lively touch of the artist’s brush, Gerrit Dou’s Old

Comparative Figures

Man Praying is a painting of calm, spiritual reverence. Seen from a slightly
elevated viewpoint and against an undefined backdrop, the elderly
bearded figure kneels in prayer while gazing fervently toward an unseen
object of devotion. This undated painting relates closely to four works
depicting an aged hermit that Dou executed between 1665 and 1670.[1] In
each of these other works, however, Dou included a context for thehermit’s spiritual reverence, whether a crucifix or some other symbolic
attribute related to the Christian faith.[2] For example, in Hermit Praying,
1670, in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (fig 1), Dou placed the hermit in a
carefully articulated environment that includes a dead tree trunk and anarchitectural ruin.[3] With a rosary in hand, the hermit gazes toward theBible on his lap. Other objects that symbolically evoke Christian spirituality
and transience—crucifix, skull, extinguished candle, and hourglass—rest

Fig 1. Gerrit Dou, Hermit Praying,
1670, oil on panel, 33.6 x 27
cm, The Minneapolis Institute ofArts, Minneapolis, The William
Hood Dunwoody Fund, inv. 87.11

on a nearby table.[4] This imagery is also depicted in Dou’s The Hermit(1670) in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (fig 2).
One can only speculate as to why, in the Leiden Collection painting, Dou
chose to focus exclusively on the hermit’s prayerful gesture and notinclude the types of Christian attributes he included in the other paintingsof hermits. One explanation may be that Dou painted this work for a
Protestant patron who wanted an image of personal piety and commitment
to faith expressed through prayer.[5] Whatever the motivation for thisfocused approach to the subject, it seems probable that Dou painted thistronie in his studio after a live model, one whom he depicted a number oftimes in the 1660s and 1670s, including in the Minneapolis painting. The
figure’s wide-set eyes, nose, and wrinkles above his brow are distinctive
features that Dou must have found compelling for his representations of a
spiritual individual.

Fig 2. Gerrit Dou, The Hermit,
1670, oil on oak panel, 46 x 34.5
cm, National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C., Timken
Collection, 1960.6.8

The infrared photograph of an Old Man Praying reveals a vigorous andspontaneous undermodeling that suggests Dou painted this figure quickly
from life.(fig 3) It shows clearly that Dou modified the man’s position
during the painting process by adjusting the angle of his shoulders to athree-quarter view.[6] The lively brushstrokes that Dou used to model thefigure’s face are reminders of the artist’s unique ability to render forms
meticulously while maintaining a loose and free handling of thebrush.[7] Dou’s idiosyncratic, “hatching” style of brushwork is clearly visible
along the hermit’s temple and nose and on the back of his hands. The© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Man Praying
Page 4 of 8energetically and quickly executed background, where the master applied
his translucent paint with a relatively wide brush, is visible in infrared aswell as with the naked eye.
Old Man Praying once formed part of the distinguished collection of Lothar
Franz von Schönborn (1655–1729), Elector of Mainz and Archbishop ofBamberg at Pommersfelden, one of the most important collections ofpaintings in eighteenth-century Germany. By the time Schönborn acquired
this painting in 1719, he had amassed a collection of almost one thousand
works of art, eventually owning nine paintings by Dou.[8] In 2006 thepresent owner acquired this small masterpiece along with another soulful
image of an elderly person, Rembrandt’s Study of a Woman in a WhiteFig 3. Infrared photograph of
GD-107

Cap (RR-101), at the same Sotheby’s sale in New York.[9]-Dominique Surh

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. The Hermit, 1670, oil on panel, 46 x 34.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.,
1960.6.8; A Hermit, 1664, oil on panel, 33.5 x 27.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no.
SK-C-128; A Hermit Praying, 1670, oil on panel, 33.66 x 26.99 cm, Minneapolis Institute ofArts, The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 87.11; A Hermit in Prayer, 1645–75, oil on panel,
25 x 19 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-88.
2. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York
University, 1990), “Appendix B: Works Known from Sources Prior to 1800.”
3. Ronni Baer, “Image of Devotion: Dou’s Hermit Praying,” Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Bulletin 67 (1995): 22–33.
4. Ronni Baer, “Hermit Praying,” 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, Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis,
2000–1) (New Haven, 2000), 130–31, no. 33.
5. Annegret Laabs, 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), 35–37.
6. Dominique Surh, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley, “Insights from Technical Analysis on aGroup of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in The Leiden Collection,” Journal of Historians ofNetherlandish Art 6, no. 2 (March 2014).
7. Eric Jan Sluijter, De lof der schilderkunst: Over schilderijen van Gerrit Dou (1613–1675) en
een traktaat van Philips Angel uit 1642 (Hilversum, 1993).
8. The present work remained at the palace of Pommersfelden for almost 150 years, until
1867. See Catalogue de la galerie de Pommersfelden (Bamberg, 1719), no. 33; Katalog der
Gräflich von Schönborn’schen Bilder-Gallerie zu Pommersfelden (Würzburg, 1857), no.
541; Otto Mündler, Catalogue de tableaux de la galerie des Cte. de Schönborn àPommersfelden (Paris, 1861), 23, no. 541; 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 , 8 vols. (London, 1907–27), 1:352, no. 29a; translated
from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28).
9. See Provenance.

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Provenance
Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655–1729), Elector of Mainz and Archbishop of Bamberg,
Schloss Weissenstein, by 1719; by descent to Count Schönborn of Pommersfelden (hissale, Paris, 17 May 1867, no. 24 [to Bamberg for 2500 ff.]).
Vice Consul Bamberg, Brussels.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 28 January 2000, no. 39; sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 26
January 2006, no. 15 [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2006]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Dublin, National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 1 December 2007–30
December 2009 [lent by the present owner].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, December
2009–January 2011 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012[lent by the present owner].
Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection From New York,” 9March–31 August 2014 [lent by the present owner].
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].

References
Catalogue de la Galerie de Pommersfelden. Bamberg, 1719, no. 33.
Katalog der Gräflich von Schönborn’schen Bilder-Gallerie zu Pommersfelden. Würzburg,
1857, no. 541.
Mündler, Otto. Catalogue de tableaux de la galerie des Cte. de Schönborn àPommersfelden. Paris, 1861, 23, no. 541.
Martin, Wilhelm. Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou. Leiden, 1901, no. 31.
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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 . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:352, no. 29a. Translated from Beschreibendes und Kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der Hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts.
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Baer, Ronni. “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675).” 3 vols. Ph.D. diss. New York
University, 1990, “Appendix B: Works Known from Sources Prior to 1800.”
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): 2–5, 8–9, 19, figs. 11a–b, 21, 22, 49, 50.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Gerrit Dou, An Old Hermit in a Dark Cloak , n.d., oil on panel, 14.9 x 11.6 cm, private
collection, the Netherlands, by 1940.

2. Gerrit Dou, An Old Hermit, n.d., oil on panel, 17 x 13 cm, formerly sale, Bukowskis,
Stockholm, 31 May 2000, no. 396.

3. Circle of Gerrit Dou, A Bearded Old Man, n.d., oil on panel, 20. 7 x 16.6 cm, formerly sale,
Christie’s, South Kensington, 12 December 1996, no. 245.

4. Gerrit Dou, Head of an Old Man , n.d., support and dimensions unknown, formerly Strauss
Collection sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 11 March 1953, no. 7.

5. Gerrit Dou, An Elderly Man, n.d., support and dimensions unknown, formerly with
Kleinberger Galleries, Paris, possibly equivalent to no. 4, above.

6. Follower of Gerrit Dou, Portrait of an Elderly Man, Bust-Length, in a Black Coat , n.d., oil on
panel, 15 x 11.6 cm, formerly sale, Bonhams, London, 20 October 2013, no. 72.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The painting is executed on a vertically grained panel. The panel is made from a single oak plank© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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of Baltic origin with a fell date between 1622 and 1638.[1] The panel is in plane, but the verticaledges are not perfectly square, as they curve inward slightly in the upper corners. The reverse of
the panel is beveled along all four edges, but the bevel is 1.0 to 1.5 cm narrower along the left
and right sides than along the top and bottom, suggesting the left and right edges have been
trimmed.
The panel was prepared with a light-colored ground that was thinly and evenly applied. The painthas been built up in successive layers. It is so thin in the background that it allows the ground toshow through. Dou used low impasto in the folds of the sitter’s robe and his beard. He createdthe wrinkles in the sitter’s brow with deep horizontal brushstrokes. A pentimento shows that Dou
shifted the outer contour of the sitter’s proper left sleeve slightly to the left. This is shown moreclearly with infrared reflectography and photographs,[2] which also indicate that he madechanges to the fingers of the sitter’s clasped hands. The infrared images show parallel diagonal
scratches through ground in the sitter’s proper right arm and his face.
The painting is in good condition. The paint and ground are fractured and chipped along theedges, which is further indication that the panel may have been trimmed. In addition to theselosses, there are minor paint losses in the drapery and along the edges.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Ian Tyers, dendochronological report, November 2010. In an undated dendochronologicalreport, Dr. Peter proposed an earliest felling date of 1623 and a plausible creation date of1631.
2. Infrared photographs were taken at 780, 850, and 1000 nm. The parameters of theinfrared reflectography are unknown.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection