Portrait of a Man Reading a Book

1668

Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt(Leiden 1640 – 1691 Leiden)

oil on copper
16.2 x 12.6 cm
signed and dated in dark paint along pageedges of book: “PSlingeland / 1668”
PvS-100© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man Reading a Book
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How To Cite
Rahusen, Henriette. "Portrait of a Man Reading a Book." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man Reading a Book
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This small portrait on copper depicts a seated man wearing a slate-blue

Comparative Figuresrobe who looks alertly at the viewer. He is about to turn the page in thebook that he holds in his left hand. The book and the long nails of hiselegant right hand establish him as a man of learning and leisure, but
Pieter van Slingelandt’s painting is devoid of attributes that might identify
him or indicate his vocation. The table supporting his right elbow iscovered with a red oriental carpet providing a colorful anchor for thecomposition.[1] Van Slingelandt has used a uniform light to isolate theunknown sitter against a background so dark, one can scarcely discern
the edge of the man’s black skull cap. Wispy brown curls further frame theman’s face, in which quizzical eyes compete for attention with theprominent nose.
The man’s robe was known in the Dutch Republic as a Japonse rok(Japanese robe). These loose-fitting and padded robes were modeled on
theprecioussilk

kimonos(Keyserrocken,imperialgowns,Fig 1. Pieter Cornelisz van
Slingelandt, Portrait of a
Gentleman in a Japanse Rok, oilon panel, 31.4 x 24.3 cm, Private
Collection, photo © Christie’sImages; out of copyrightorschenckagierocken, gift gowns) that the Tokugawa Shogun gave to highranking officials of the Dutch East India Company during their annual visitsto Edo, Japan. The Japonse rok was worn indoors by men and womenalike to ward off the cold.[2] This slate-blue robe with its turned-over collar
is very similar to the one worn by the standing man in another portrait by
Van Slingelandt (fig 1), even if the latter robe seems much silkier andbulkier. It is unclear whether the brown trim of the collar is a strip of fur orthe edge of a woolen padding that has been turned over.
One of Gerrit Dou’s (1613–75) most talented students, Pieter van
Slingelandt was so adept at emulating his master’s meticulous techniquesand compositional elements that his best work has often been attributed toDou.[3] The smooth modeling of the sitter’s face and hands echoes theFig 2. Gerrit Dou, Portrait of aYoung Woman, ca. 1655, oil onpanel, 14.5 x 11.7 cm, NationalGallery, London, Wynn Ellis
Bequest, 1876, inv. NG968, ©
National Gallery, London / Art
Resource, NY

latter’s finest brushwork, but this figure does not match the energetic
physicality of Dou’s portraits. The diminutive size of Van Slingelandt’s halflength, seated portrait would have been rather unusual in the first half ofthe seventeenth century, when life-size portraits were the norm, but fits
fully within the trend toward the smaller likenesses painted after the middleof the century by masters such as Gerard ter Borch (1617–81) and Caspar
Netscher (ca. 1639–84).[4] Gerrit Dou also produced several small
portraits, including the delicate oval Portrait of a Young Woman , ca. 1655
(National Gallery, London) (fig 2), and Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn inthe Leiden Collection (GD-111). Dou’s student Frans van Mieris the Elder© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man Reading a Book
Page 4 of 7(1635–81) also painted meticulous works in small format, a number ofwhich are in the Leiden Collection, as, for example,Portrait of a Fifty-TwoYear-Old Man (FM-104).[5] The keen interest that Leiden patrons had incommissioning their likenesses from masters such as Dou, Van Mieris,and Van Slingelandt is evident in the large number of their portraits in theLeiden Collection. The refined technique of these fijnschilders made thememinently equipped to do their sitters justice on small panel or coppersupports.
Small, precious portraits like this one by Van Slingelandt were timeconsuming. Portrait of a Man Reading a Book dates from the phase in theartist’s career when he was known to spend prodigious amounts of timefinishing his works, resulting, in this instance, in a finely rendered,charming portrait that retains an engaging, lifelike character.[6]-Henriette Rahusen© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. Van Slingelandt used the same carpet to similarly anchor his drawn Portrait of Jan Poelaert,1674. According to RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands
Institute for Art History) database, this portrait was with the art dealer Mireille Mosler in New
York in 2014.
2. Charlotte van Rappard-Boon and N. Dekking, Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influenceon Dutch Art from 1650 to the Present , ed. N. Dekking (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum;
Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art) (Amsterdam, 1991), 91–93, 96.
3. Peter Hecht, De Hollandse Fijnschilders van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff (Exh.
cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Zwolle, 1989), 218–28.
4. Rudolf E. O. Ekkart and Quentin Buvelot, Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans
Hals, trans. Beverly Jackson (Exh. cat. London, National Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis)(London, 2007), 59. At 43 x 34 cm, Ter Borch’s pendant portraits of Jan van Romondt andhis wife, Maria Ziewertsdr. van Out (private collection), are beautiful examples of thepainterly finesse that smaller-than-life portraits required, as is his even smaller portrait (20 x16 cm) of his colleague Jan van Goyen (1596–1656) (Fürstliche Sammlungen Liechtenstein,Vaduz).
5. See also Van Mieris’s Self-Portrait, 1661, and the likeness of his wife, Cunera van der Cock,
1662, two ovals that measure a mere 11 x 8 cm each (private collection, New York). These
two works are reproduced in Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Nieuwenhuizen,
Leidse Fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 (Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 132–33, nos. 124 and 125.
6. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980), 3:162.

Provenance(Possibly sale, Jean Baptiste Pierre Lebrun, Paris, May 1803, no. 30).1[1]Private collection, France or Belgium, possibly Dr. Richter.
Confiscated by Nazi forces in France in 1940; selected by Adolph Hitler for theFührermuseum on 21 July 1940; transferred by Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler on behalf ofAdolph Hitler to Hans Posse by 29 July 1940; recorded in the possession of the Special
Commission Linz (Sonderauftrag Linz) in Dresden, Linz no. 2132; collected by the Allies and© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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recorded at the Munich Central Collecting Point, 15 October 1945, Mu. no. 9514.2[2]Prime Minister of Austria, Salzburg, 18 January 1952, on the condition that the painting
would be restituted to its prior owner; transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna(Kunsthistorisches Museum); held at the Mauerbach Depot until 1980, Mauerbach no. 408(announced in the Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung on 2 September 1969, no. 428).
Austrian Federal Monuments Office (Bundesdenkmalamt), ca. 1980–92 (announced in theAmtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung on 1 February 1986, no. 408).
Restituted to the descendants of the prior owner in 1992.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 2004, no. 268 [Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Provenance Notes

1. The Lebrun sale of 1803 lists the following entry, which corresponds closely with thepresent painting in both size and description: “Lot 30. Pierre Van Slingelandt. Un Homme vuà mi-corps la tête de face, tenant un livre & appuyé sur le coin d’une table; il est vêtu d’unerobe-de chamber & a la tête couverte d’une calotte. Tableau fin & d’une couleur brillante.
Peinture sur cuivre, Haut. 5 p. 9 lig., larg. 4 p. 6 lig.” (Lot 30. Pierre Van Slingelandt. Man
seen from the waist up, facing frontally, holding a book and leaning on the corner of a table;
he is wearing a dressing gown and his head is covered with a skullcap. A highly finished andbrilliantly colored painting. Painted on copper, 5.9 pounces high, 4.6 pounces wide).
2. Recorded by Hitler’s personal secretary, Heinrich Himmler showed Hitler this specificpainting on 21 July 1940. Hitler approved of the painting and sent it, along with others, toHans Posse. Posse was the director of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie and Hitler had placed
him in charge of looted artworks, to form the foundation of his planned Führermuseum.
When Posse wrote back to Hitler on 29 July 1940, he stated that this painting would be agood addition to the miniatures section of the Führermuseum and described it as “eine recht
hubsche Arbeit” (a rather pretty work). See Birgit Schwarz, Hitlers Museum, in References.

References
Schwarz, Birgit. Hitlers Museum: Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz; Dokumente zum“Führermuseum.” Vienna, 2004, 107, 225, no. 3/19.
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Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular copper sheet, has been inset flush into the routed surface of a fourmembered wooden stretcher slightly larger than the copper in both directions. The copper edges
are not visible and the panel thickness cannot be measured directly.
The reverse of the copper panel has been firmly adhered to the wood stretcher members, so only
the middle rectangle of copper remains visible along the reverse.[1] The panel is in plane and has
a smooth surface along the front, however the oxidized reverse has slight pitting and variations intexture, which suggests the copper may have been hammered prior to being rolled. There are
two inscriptions along the exposed reverse, but no wax seals, stencils, chalk, labels or makers
marks are located along the panel reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by paint thinly and extremelysmoothly applied with no use of impasto, although areas of low brushmarking outline the outer
contours of the compositional forms.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the page edges of the book the figure holds,
oriented towards the viewer.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Compositional changes revealed in the images and as a pentimento appear along the backcover of the open book: the length of the spine appears to have been extended by about one
third beyond the figure’s proper left hand toward the right panel edge, and the position of the
figure’s hand (i.e., thumb) may have been shifted.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. 11.3 cm H x 7.6 cm W© 2017 The Leiden Collection