© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 2 of 11

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a
Table

probably 1676
oil on panel
33.1 x 27.8 cm
inscribed along upper edge of map, on
background wall: “ CVR A PN DA(?) AD …
Leyde.” Alternate reading: “(ABOAVA PI…VA(?)) AD … Leyde.”
FM-107

Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nd

ed.

EditedbyArthurK.

Wheelock

Jr.

New

York,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-woman-reading-and-a-man-seated-at-a-table/ (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 narrative
occurs.

Frans van Mieris was not only a master at rendering different materials, but

Comparative Figures

also in depicting the relationships of people in domestic settings. Here hehas portrayed a young woman quietly immersed in reading the letter she
carefully holds in her hands while, opposite her, a man with a finger resting
against his forehead in a thinking pose looks directly out at the viewer.[1]Even though the two individuals are in close proximity, their activities andbody language suggest that they are in their own separate worlds. There is acomparable difference of emphasis in the way they are depicted. The
woman’s smooth skin is fully illuminated, and the artist carefully captured thefolds and shimmering surface of her beautiful silk deep red jacket and coppercolored dress with numerous bright highlights. The man’s black outfit,
however, is barely visible, which helps underscore the importance of his

Fig 1. X-radiograph of A Woman
Reading and a Man Seated at a
Table (FM-107)© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 3 of 11

head and gesture. Van Mieris visually connects the two individuals with theexquisitely depicted glass of red wine and silver dish on the table between
them.
Behind the couple is a monumental arched doorway leading to another roomwith a large map on the wall. Passing through the doorway is a young boy
who carries a lute and some sheet music, motifs that suggest a romanticinterlude may be on the gentleman’s mind. The composition, in this respect,
is similar to Young Woman Playing a Harpsichord to a Young Man, ca. 1659
(London, National Gallery) by Jan Steen (1625/26–79).[2] Lutes can be foundin numerous paintings and prints from the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, either as signs of intimacy or as references to women or thefemale genitals. Indeed, “to strike the lute” was a Dutch expression forsexual intercourse,[3] something that would explain the pointed look on the

Fig 2. Cornelis van Meurs afterFrans van Mieris the Elder, A
Woman Reading and a Man
Seated at a Table, ca. 1720?,
engraving (cut at the bottom), 292
x 271 mm, Rijksprentenkabinet,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RPP-1903-A-23289

man’s face.
The main protagonists in this painting are Van Mieris himself and his wife,
Cunera van der Cock (1629/30–1700), called “Kniertje,” whom he had
married in 1657, shortly after the birth of their first daughter, Christina(1657–85).[4] The couple later had two sons and two more daughters, Anna
(1658–1723) and Cornelia (1665–1751). The sons, Jan (1660–90) andWillem (1662–1747), both became artists, and perhaps one of them was themodel for the boy in this painting. Later eighteenth-century descriptions of
the painting, such as an entry in the 1768 catalogue of the Leipzig collector
Gottfried Winckler (1731–95),[5] confirm that collectors were aware of the factthat Van Mieris had used himself and his wife as models, something he did in
no less than a quarter of his painted oeuvre.[6]The stone window-framing device, which occurs in many of Van Mieris’s

Fig 3. Attributed to Willem van
Mieris, A Man Drinking and a
Woman Offering Him a Fish,undated, oil on panel, 34 x 29 cm,
private collection

works, is considered the trademark of the Leiden fijnschilders. Nevertheless,this window frame is a later addition and was not part of the artist’s original
concept.[7] This added surround can be seen clearly in an X-radiograph (fig 1) and even with the naked eye.[8] Remarkably, the X-radiograph also showsthat Van Mieris painted his genre scene over a male portrait.[9] Evidence forthe fact that the window-framing device was a later addition comes from two
painted copies and an engraving (fig 2) that show the painting in its original,
smaller format.[10] The engraving, by the little-known engraver Cornelis van
Meurs (active before ca. 1720?), gives a date for Van Mieris’s panel of 1676,
which is entirely appropriate for Van Mieris’s development.[11]The window-framing motif appears to have been added by the artist’s son
Willem van Mieris, who made a copy of the painting in 1687.[12] He was© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 4 of 11

probably also responsible for producing a “pendant” to this picture, A Man
Drinking and a Woman Offering Him a Fish, which in the past was attributed
to his father (fig 3).[13] Willem van Mieris followed his father in choice of
subject matter and technique, but his paintings are rather slick in execution.
In A Man Drinking and a Woman Offering Him a Fish, the reflected light is alittle hard and the figures are stereotypes.[14] Between 1733 and 1764, bothpaintings are documented together in sales catalogues.[15] The enlargementof the present picture must have been done before 1733, as the catalogue ofthe sale of the collection of Adriaan Bout gives the present dimensions, withthe additions.
The provenance of Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table previously
contained major lacunae. It can now be established, however, that thepainting, which was described in the sales catalogues of the collections of
Adriaan Bout and Benjamin da Costa,[16] was later owned by the famous
Leipzig banker Gottfried Winckler (1731–95). In the entry on the painting in
the 1768 catalogue of Winckler’s collection, reference is made to the Da
Costa collection.[17] With this information, the vague reference to a
subsequent owner, a “Mr Duval” from Geneva, can now be completely
understood: he is the court jeweler Jean-François-André (François) Duval(1776–1854) from Saint Petersburg, who bought a major portion of
Winckler’s paintings collection.[18] Duval’s collector’s mark, “FD,” was also
found on the back of this panel.[19] In 1845 Duval sold his collection to
Napoleon III’s half-brother, Charles-August-Louis-Joseph (1811–65), Duc deMorny, who lived in Paris but dispersed many of the newly acquired paintings
in London a year later.[20] The painting would stay in England for more than
150 years, until it was acquired by the Leiden Collection in 2008 from theheirs of the Marquis of Lansdowne.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 5 of 11

Endnotes

1. The folds of the paper make clear that this is a letter; in older literature, however, it has often
been described as a newspaper (see, for example, Jean-Baptiste Descamps, La vie despeintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits gravées en taille-douce, une
indication de leurs principaux ouvrages, & des réflexions sur leurs difféereéntes manièeres, 4vols. [Paris, 1753–64], 3:21).
2. Illustrated in Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris
1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 122, fig. 17a. See also Van Mieris’s The Duet,painted in 1658 (Schwerin, Staartliches Museum), in Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, andEddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 17, 120–23.
3. See Eddy de Jongh in Eddy de Jongh and Ger Luijten, Mirror of Everyday Life: Genre Prints
in the Netherlands, 1550–1700, trans. Michael Hoyle (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)(Ghent, 1997), 63–66, and E. de Jongh in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681(Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven,2005), 56 and fig. 13.
4. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:126 n.
205, was more hesitant in describing the figures in the present painting as the artist and hiswife.
5. Franz Wilhlem Krechauf, Historische Erklärungen der Gemälde, welche Herr Gottfried
Winkler in Leipzig gesammlet (Leipzig, 1768), 173–74, no. 431.
6. For more on this subject, see FM-108.
7. Van Mieris’s painting initially measured about 24 x 19 cm. Van Mieris is known to haveenlarged some of his panels; see Quentin Buvelot and Otto Naumann, “Format Changes by
Frans van Mieris the Elder,” Burlington Magazine 150 (2008): 102–4; see also FM-103.
8. See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981),
2:103.
9. Otto Naumann thinks it might be a portrait of Charles I wearing armor and a goatee (e-mail tothe author, 9 June 2011).
10. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:103–4,
nos. 92a–b.
11. Gerdien Wuestman is preparing an article on this enigmatic artist. In an e-mail of 12 May
2013 she kindly pointed out to the author that the prints made by Van Meurs after Van Mieris© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 6 of 11

were already mentioned in Antoine-Joseph Dézallier d’Argenville, Abrégé de la vie des plus
fameux peintres avec leurs portraits gravés en taille-douce, vol. 2. (Paris, 1745), 100, andthus must have been made before that date. See also Gerdein Wuestman, “De Hollandse
schilderschool in prent: Studies naar reproduktietechniek in de tweede helft van dezeventiende eeuw / Dutch Art Seen Through Prints: Studies in Reproductive Printmaking in
the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century” (PhD diss. Utrecht, 1998), 43 n. 59. See also
Alfred von Wurzbach, Niederla?ndisches Ku?nstler-Lexikon; Auf Grund archivalischer
Forschungen bearbeitet, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1906–11), 2: 155, no. 4; Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: fig. C 92. The engraving is clearly
signed at the lower left “C: H: Van Meurs. Sculp.” with an inscription at lower right: “F. Van
Mieris pinxit Anno 1676”. Gerdien Wuestman pointed out in a written communication that a
copy of the print kept in the Bibliothèque National, Paris, still has its original margins andcontains a verse, which reads: “Attentif au Recit Des Relations Nouvelles / Je Delasse
L’Esprit Et Je Me Rejouis / La Diversité Plait et Remet La Cervelle / Fatiguee Par Les Soins,
L’Etude et Les Ennuis.”
12. Willem van Mieris may have added the window frame as early as 1687, the date of his copyof the original composition (Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
[Doornspijk, 1981], 2:104, no. 92b). If this is indeed the case, Van Meurs did not reproduce
the additions in his reproductive engraving.
13. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:104,
no. 93. Interestingly, this painting by Willem van Mieris was also enlarged: starting out as apanel of 25 x 19 cm, it was enlarged to 34 x 29 cm. The painting recently appeared at a saleat Christie’s, New York, 31 January 2013, lot 258, where it was bought in.
This was not the first time that a “pendant” was created for a painting by Frans van Mieris the
Elder, or that a copy was made after his work. See Otto Naumann and Quentin Buvelot in
Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 233, no. 44 and fig. 22c.
Importantly, Cornelia Moiso-Diekamp, Das Pendant in der holländischen Malerei des 17.
Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 378–79, did not accept the two paintings as
pendants.
14. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:104, in
no. 93, already attributed A Man Drinking and a Woman Offering Him a Fish, as well as the
additions of the present painting, to Willem van Mieris.
15. Bout sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733, nos. 52–53 (both sold to Da Costa); Da Costa sale,
The Hague, 13 August 1764, nos. 36–37; see also Jean-Baptiste Descamps, La vie despeintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits gravées en taille-douce, une
indication de leurs principaux ouvrages, & des réflexions sur leurs difféereéntes manièeres, 4vols. (Paris, 1753–64), 3: 21.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 7 of 11

16. Bout sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733, nos. 52–53; Da Costa sale, The Hague, 13 August
1764, nos. 36–37; see also Jean-Baptiste Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands,
allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits gravées en taille-douce, une indication de leursprincipaux ouvrages, & des réflexions sur leurs difféereéntes manièeres 4 vols. (Paris,
1753–64), 3:21.
17. Historische Erklärungen der Gemälde, welche Herr Gottfried Win[c]kler in Leipzig gesammlet(Leipzig, 1768), 173–74, no. 431: “Dieses Gemälde . . . war den Kennern sonst im Cabinette
des Herrn d’Acosta im Haag besonders schätzbar.” Winckler had one other autograph Van
Mieris: number 432 describes Tronie of a Man in Oriental Dress (Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. [Doornspijk, 1981], 2:84, no. 70); the whereabouts ofthis painting were unknown for a long time, but it appeared at auction at Sotheby’s, London,
5 December 2012, lot 6, repr., where it was bought by Johnny van Haeften, London, after
which it was shown by him at the TEFAF, Maastricht, 2013. A painting of a woman holding adog, described in the Winckler catalogue under number 433, may have been painted by the
grandson of Van Mieris, Frans the Younger; see Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:134–35, no. B 20 and fig. CB 20.
18. See

DieterGleisberg,“‘’Liebe

zur

Kunst

und

besonderszur

Mahlerey’:Die

Gemäldesammlung des Leipziger Bankiers Gottfried Winckler,” Leipziger Almanach(2011–12): 160–62.
19. This seal was mentioned, but not identified, in Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures
Belonging to The Marquess of Lansdowne, K. G. at Lansdowne House, London and Bowood
Wilts (London, 1897), 62, in no. 160.
20. See

DieterGleisberg,“‘’Liebe

zur

Kunst

und

besonderszur

Mahlerey’:Die

Gemäldesammlung des Leipziger Bankiers Gottfried Winckler,” Leipziger Almanach(2011–12): 162.

Provenance
Adriaan Bout, The Hague (his sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733, no. 53 [505 guilders to
Benjamin da Costa]).
Benjamin da Costa, The Hague, 1733–64, and his widow (his sale, The Hague, 13 August
1764, no. 37 [615 guilders to Odor or Audon]).
Gottfried Winckler, Leipzig, 1768 (cat. 1768, 173–74, no. 431).
Jean-François-André (François) Duval, Saint Petersburg (until 1816) and Ghent (1816–45),
who sold his entire collection to De Morny in 1845.
Charles-August-Louis-Joseph, Duc de Morny, Paris, 1845–46 (“Duval” Sale, London,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 8 of 11

Phillips, 12 May 1846, no. 114 [for 13,629 francs to Phillips] and De Morny Sale, London,
Phillips, 20 June 1848, no. 99 [388.10 pounds to Farrer]).
Probably acquired by Henry Charles, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–66), Bowood
House, Calne (Wiltshire).
Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (1845–1927), Bowood House, Calne(Wiltshire).
By descent to Henry William Edmund, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne (1872–1936), and George
John Charles, 8th Marquis of Lansdowne (1912–99), and his heirs, Bowood House, Calne(Wiltshire), until 2008.
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
London, Royal Academy, 1884, no. 63 [lent by Marquis of Landsdowne].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, January
2011–January 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Wellesley, Davis Museum at Wellesley College, on loan with the permanent collection, 1
August 2016–1 August 2018 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hoet, Gerard, and Pieter Terwesten. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver
pryzen. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 1: 388, no. 53; 2: 468; 3:377.
Descamps, Jean-Baptiste. La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec desportraits gravés en taille-douce, une indication de leurs principaux ouvrages, & des réflexions
sur leurs différentes manières. 4 vols. Paris, 1753–64, 3:21.
Krechauf, Franz Wilhlem. Historische Erklärungen der Gemälde, welche Herr Gottfried
Winkler in Leipzig gesammlet. Leipzig, 1768, 173–74, no. 431.
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 1:67, no. 19.
Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures Belonging to The Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G. at
Lansdowne House, London and Bowood Wilts. London, 1897, 62, no. 160.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912. 4 vols. London, 1913, 2:220,
778.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 9 of 11

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, 10: 41–42, no. 158. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Van Hall, Hermine. Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende Kunstenaars. Amsterdam, 1963,
213, no. 34.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981, 1: 126 n.
205, 128, 2: 103–4, no. 92.
Miller, James. The Catalogue of Paintings at Bowood House. London, 1982, 19–20.
Moiso-Diekamp, Cornelia. Das Pendant in der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Frankfurt am Main, 1987, 378–79, no. D1.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Editedby Quentin Buvelot, 236, no. 92. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, National
Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 2005.
Gleisberg, Dieter. “‘Liebe zur Kunst und besonders zur Mahlerey’: Die Gemäldesammlungdes Leipziger Bankiers Gottfried Winckler.” Leipziger Almanach (2011–12): 162, 184 (withwrong dimensions).
Wuestman, Gerdien. “C. H. van Meurs and his fijnschilder prints: a mysterious printmakerwith a forgotten oeuvre.” Simiolus 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 129, no. 2.

Versions
Engraved

1. C. H. van Meurs after Frans van Mieris, engraving, 292 x 271 mm, Rijksmuseum,
Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam, RP-P-1903-A-23289, showing the original format of thepainting.

2. Johann Friedrich Bause (1738–1814), mentioned in entry of the painting in Historische
Erklärungen der Gemälde, welche Herr Gottfried Win[c]kler in Leipzig gesammlet (Leipzig,1768), 174, in no. 431.

3. “Klauber,” probably Ignaz Sebastian Klauber (1753–1817), made in St. Petersburg in 1812,
reproduced in catalogue of the “Duval” Sale, London, Phillips, 12 May 1846, no. 114.

Versions and Copies© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 10 of 11

1. Unknown artist after Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 25 x 20 cm, sale, N. Nieuhoff,
Amsterdam, 14 April 1777, no. 123; sale, J. Tak, Soeterwoude, 5 September 1781, no. 12;
sale, De Quarles, Amsterdam, 19 October 1818, no. 31; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris(1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:103–4, no. 92a.

2. Willem van Mieris, oil on panel, 45.5 x 36 cm, signed and dated 1687, collection Hollandt,
Braunschweig, cat. 1843, no. 212; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2
vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:104, no. 92b.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular-shaped composite panel comprising five vertically grained oak planks,
has been marouflaged to a single plank of oak.[1] A central rectangular plank has four narrowplanks added to the edges. The composite panel has been thinned and marouflaged to arectangular-shaped, vertically grained plank of oak, which has no bevels or machine
toolmarks. Three red wax collection seals, a handwritten black inscription, and remnants of twolayers of paper tape are located along the outer edges of the panel reverse, but there are no
paper labels, import stamps or panel maker’s marks.
The X-radiograph reveals an earlier composition on the central rectangular plank depicting a halflength male figure wearing armor on his proper right arm and holding a stick or baton, and ahighly radio-opaque layer along the four narrow outer planks. The final painted composition of thewoman and man shows virtually no radio-opaque imagery aside from the female figure’s flesh
tones, highlights along her garments, and the letter she reads.
A ground layer, which appears to be dark, has been thinly and evenly applied followed byrelatively opaque paint with no obvious brushwork or impasto along the lighter areas and withthinly applied transparent glazes along the richly colored sections, such as the red clothing, green
furniture and red wine.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 720 nanometers. The images
reveal the female figure’s drapery was painted before the backrest of the chair.
The painting is unsigned and undated. An inscription has been written in capital letters in dark
paint along the upper edge of the map hanging by a nail along the background wall.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table
Page 11 of 11

panel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel does not have great
potential for dedrochronology, as the central oak plank is inaccessible.
2. Entry based on 2012 examination report by Jevon Thistlewood, paintings conservator,
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection