Traveler at Rest
Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

ca. 1657
oil on copper
21.6 x 17.8 cm
signed, lower right: “F. van Mieris”
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How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Traveler at Rest” (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/ (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.

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Traveler at Rest, datable to about 1657, is one of Frans van Mieris’s earliest
masterpieces.

[1]

Comparative Figures

Beautifully executed and wonderfully preserved, this painting

demonstrates why this Leiden master was famous for his ability to render light effects
and the varied textures of materials. Van Mieris has here depicted a young, red-haired
man sitting in the shade of ancient ruins partly overgrown with vegetation and gazingstraight at the viewer. In his lap lies a rather large hat, and in his left hand he holds a
flask with a wicker cover. Judging from the bag lying beside him, his walking stick,sagging stocking and the torn seam at his shoulder, the man has been traveling and has
stopped in a cool spot to refresh himself. The landscape beyond the ruin’s arched
opening is reminiscent of the sun-drenched images of the Dutch Italianates, whose
paintings must have served as Van Mieris’s source of inspiration, since he nevertraveled to Italy.[2]Van Mieris painted a similar composition, but in reverse, on the easel in the interiorof his The Painter in His Studio of about 1657 in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden (fig 1). In that scene, a wealthy visitor or connoisseur studies the painting

Fig 1. Frans van Mieris the Elder, The
Painter in His Studio, ca. 1657, oil on
panel, 63.9 x 46.8 cm, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Dresden,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, 1751

closely under the artist’s watchful eye. There, too, the painting on the easel features a
man with a walking stick seated in a relaxed manner under the arched vault of an
antique ruin (fig 2). He has removed a sock and a shoe to cool off and rest after his
travels. In much the same manner, the sagging stocking in the Leiden Collection
painting indicates that the traveler is at rest.[3] Van Mieris emphasizes the traveler’s
bared knee by having the young man rest his arm on it, a pose also seen in a depictionof a smoking man by Simon Kick (1603–52) and in Carel Fabritius’s (1622–54)
Sentry from 1654 (Schwerin, Staatliches Museum).[4] In each of these instances thismotif indicates that the man is resting his tired feet.[5]The clothing of the man depicted in Traveler at Rest denotes a certain affluence, andFig 2. Detail of Frans van Mieris the
Elder, The Painter in His Studio, ca.
1657, oil on panel, 63.9 x 46.8 cm,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte
Meister, 1751

he may very well have been a Dutchman who went to Italy and wanted to have his trip
commemorated once he had returned to Leiden. The man’s face, which has all the
striking features of an actual portrait, closely resembles that of the visitor in Van
Mieris’s Dresden painting, who seems to have come to the artist’s studio to see how hehas been represented. The tattered look, the direct gaze, and the Italianate setting in
the Leiden Collection painting similarly indicate that the sitter wanted to stress hisfull engagement in the experience of being abroad.[6] The directness of the portrait
resembles that of cloth merchant Anthony de Bordes, who commissioned a portrait byMichael Sweerts (1618–64) in about 1648 (fig 3). De Bordes visited Italy in 1648,and the backdrop of his portrait—an obelisk standing in a park-like landscape with afountain—places the scene in Rome.[7] Whereas the merchant is helped out of hisboots by a servant, suggesting he has just returned from riding in the Roman

Fig 3. Michael Sweerts, Anthonij de
Bordes and His Valet, ca. 1648, oil oncanvas, 50.7 x 66.6 cm, National
Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Giftfrom the Collection of Dr. Arthur andMrs. Arlene Elkind, Fund given inhonor of Derald Ruttenberg’s
Grandchildren, and New Century
Fund, 2012.13.1

countryside, the man in Van Mieris’s painting has simply been walking.
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In painting Traveler at Rest, Van Mieris used a copper plate, an ultra-smooth support
ideally suited to his refined and meticulous technique.[8] Interestingly, the artist, who
had spent a short time training as a goldsmith, applied a layer of gold leaf over thecopper ground.[9] Rembrandt had done the same around 1629–30 in his Laughing
Soldier.[10] But while the latter artist allowed the gold to glint through the surface ofthe paint, Van Mieris covered up the gold with his preparatory layers. He may havewanted to protect the painting from the ravages of time, as gold shields the paint fromcopper’s oxidation. In any event, this expensive technique is another indication thatthe painting was commissioned by a wealthy individual who wanted his portrait
painted as a reminder of his travels to Italy. Without knowing the details of Van
Mieris’s technique, Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1797–1868), the director of the Berlin
museums and the first professor of art history in that city, praised this painting in
1854 as being “of that soft golden tone, and of that delicate feeling, which distinguishhis best pictures.”[11]The earliest known owner of Traveler at Rest is probably Jacob Hoofman (d. 1799).
After his death, the painting must have been inherited by one of his art-loving
daughters, either Margaretha Hoofman (1773–1807) or Maria Hoofman(1776–1845), who each inherited half of their father’s collection.[12] After
Margaretha’s death, her part of the paintings collection was inherited by her husband,
Pieter Quarles van Ufford (1757–1834), who transferred the ownership of the mostimportant works in this collection to his unmarried sister-in-law, Maria Hoofman,
while others were sold anonymously in 1818.[13] In or before 1819 the painting waspart of the art collection of shipbuilder William Wells (1768–1847), who lived in
Kent.[14] After Wells’s death, the painting was acquired by Robert Staynor Holford(1808–92), a member of the British parliament. In 1857 Holford lent the painting to
the famous exhibition in Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom.[15] Apartfrom that exhibition, the painting remained at Holford’s London residence,
Dorchester House, which his son, Sir George Holford (1860–1926), inherited in
1892. After the latter’s death, Traveler at Rest became the property of Giovanni
Agnelli (1921–2003), head of the Italian automobile company Fiat in Turin. The
painting entered a private collection in Germany in 1988, after which it was acquiredby the New York collector Eric Martin Wunsch (1924–2013). In January 2014, thisexquisite painting entered the Leiden Collection.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017

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Endnotes
1. Previously, this highly accomplished painting was dated 1656–57 and 1655–57; cf., respectively, Otto
Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 44; and Quentin
Buvelot, “The Resting Traveler,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The
Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 98.
2. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:46; and Dieter
Beaujean, “Der Besuch im Atelier, um 1655,” in Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und Skulptur von Dürer
bis Daumier, ed. Ekkehard Mai and Kurt Wettengl (Exh. cat. Munich, Haus der Kunst; Cologne, WallrafRichartz Museum) (Wolfratshausen, 2002), 328.
3. A second painting of the same size by Van Mieris, The Broken Egg, has been wrongly described as thependant to Traveler at Rest. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 45; see also Cornelia Moiso-Diekamp, Das Pendant in der Holländischen Malerei
des 17. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 383, no. D 6; and Quentin Buvelot, “The Resting
Traveler,” in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 98–100, no. 10.
4. For Kick’s painting, see: sale Zurich, Koller, 20 September 2013, no. 3063; sale Amsterdam, Christie’s,
10 November 1992, no. 127. See also Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 1:45 and fig. 32; 2: 18; Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk,
1992), 166–67, no. D 25. For Fabritius’s painting, see Gero Seelig in Frederick J. Duparc, Carel
Fabritius 1622–1654 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Schwerin, Staatliches Museum) (Zwolle, 2005),
no. 12.
5. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:18–19, however,proposed an interpretation that involved an emblematic reading of this motif that suggested that thetraveler had not carefully considered his actions; followed in Quentin Buvelot, “The Resting Traveler,”in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 98–100, no. 10.
6. I would like to thank Otto Naumann and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for their generous and important input
with regard to the interpretation of Traveler at Rest, as expressed in personal correspondence ofFebruary 2014.
7. Rolf Kultzen, Michael Sweerts: Brussels 1618–Goa 1664 (Doornspijk, 1996), no. 32; Guido Jansen andPeter C. Sutton, Michael Sweerts (1618–1664) (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum) (Zwolle, 2001), 77–79, no. 4, repr.
Interestingly, the pose of Van Mieris’s protagonist is similar to that of a resting traveler in a painting that
Sweerts produced in Rome in about 1650. See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder,
2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:46 and fig. 39; Rolf Kultzen, Michael Brussels 1618–Goa 1664
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Traveler at Rest
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8. Only in 1988, when the painting was restored after its acquisition by Otto Naumann, was it discoveredthat the work is painted on a copper plate. Until then it had always been assumed that the painting wason panel, beginning with John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch,
Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols. (London, 1829–42), 1:81, no. 79.
9. Isabel Horovitz, “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports,” in Michael
Komanecky et al., Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper, 1575–1775(Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum; Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; The Hague,
Mauritshuis) (New York, 1998), 88 n. 41.
10. Copper, 15.3 x 12.2 cm (with auxiliary support: 21.5 x 18.2 cm), The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. 598; see
Ben Broos and Ariane van Suchtelen in Portraits in the Mauritshuis, 1430–1790, ed. Quentin Buvelot(The Hague and Zwolle, 2004), no. 46, repr.
11. Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections ofPaintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., etc., trans. Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols. (London,
1854–57), 2: 200.
12. According to Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857
(Exh. cat. Manchester, City Art Gallery) (London, 1857), 74, no. 1078; William Bürger [Etienne-JosephThéophile Thoré] Trésors d’art en Angleterre (Brussels, 1860, rev. ed., Paris, 1865), 279; and Cornelis
Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols. (London,
1907–28), originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke derhervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28),
10: 28, no. 101, the painting came from the Hoofman Collection. For this collection, see Adriaan vander Willigen, Catalogus der schilderijen van Mejuffrouw Hoofman, unpublished manuscript, kept at theRKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History); see also
Roeland van Eijnden and Adriaan van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, sedertde helft der XVIIIe eeuw, 4 vols. (Haarlem, 1816–40), 3: 396, 423, 482; 4: 309.
13. Catalogus eener uitmuntende verzameling van zeer schoone en kostbare schilderijen [J. Hoofman and P.
Quarles van Ufford], Amsterdam, 20 October 1818, passim; see also Ruud Priem, “The ‘Most Excellent
Collection’ of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809–22,” Simiolus 25 (1997): 103–225, 183–84,
nos. 2–3.
14. See Dianne Sachko Macleod, “Wells, William,” Oxford Dictionary.
15. See Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857 (Exh. cat.
Manchester, City Art Gallery) (London, 1857), 74, no. 1078. See also Francis Haskell, Rediscoveries in
Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France (Oxford, 1980), 157–80.

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ProvenanceMaria Hoofman (1776–1845), Haarlem, possibly inherited from her father Jacob Hoofman (1739–99).
William Wells (1768–1847), Redleaf, Kent, by 1819 (his sale, Christie’s, London, 13 May 1848, no. 85[to Fuller for 493 guineas]).
Sir Robert Stayner Holford (1808–92), Dorchester House, London, and Westonbirt, Gloucestershire,
1848; by descent to his son, Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860–1926) (his sale, Christie’s, London, 17
May 1928, no. 21 [to Julius Böhler for 504 guineas]).[1][Julius Böhler, Munich.]
Giovanni Agnelli (1921–2003), Turin [through Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, to Diethelm Doll].
Diethelm Doll, Bonn, 1988 [through David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, to Martin Wunsch].
Eric Martin Wunsch (1924–2013), New York (sale, Christie’s, New York, 29 January 2014, no. 5).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2014.

Provenance Notes

1. Rembrandt van Rijn and Workshop’s Man with a Sword, now in The Leiden Collection, was also
formerly in the collection of Sir Robert Stayner Holford and Sir George Lindsay Holford, and was soldin the latter’s sale in 1928.

Exhibition History
London, British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, “Exhibition of Picturesof the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Schools,” 1819, no. 34 [lent by William Wells].
Manchester, City Art Gallery, “Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom,” 1857, no. 1078
[lent by Sir Robert Stayner Holford].
London, Royal Academy of Arts, “Winter Exhibition: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by
Deceased Masters of the British School,” January–March 1894, no. 49 [lent by Sir George Lindsay
Holford].
Leiden, Lakenhal Museum, “Fêtes de Rembrandt à Leyde,” 15 July–15 September 1906, no. 27 [lent by
Sir George Lindsay Holford].
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, “Winter Exhibition: Pictures and Other Objects of Art Selectedfrom the Collections of Mr. Robert Holford (1808–1892),” 1921–1922, no. 35 [lent by Sir George
Lindsay Holford].
The Hague, The Mauritshuis, “Frans van Mieris 1635–1681: Painted Perfection,” 1 October 2005–22
January 2006, no. 10 [lent by Eric Martin Wunsch].
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Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Amourous Intrgiues and Painterly Refinement: The Art ofFrans van Mieris,” 26 February–21 May 2006, no. 10 [lent by Eric Martin Wunsch].
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, August 2014– June
2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017, no. 13 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017, no. 41 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018, no. 41 [lent by thepresent owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March–22 July 2018, no. 34 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019, no. 34 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019, no. 61 [lent by thepresent owner].

References
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of Pictures of the
Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Exh. cat. London, British Institution for Promoting the Fine
Arts in the United Kingdom. London, 1819, no. 34.
Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by
the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. London, 1824, 1: 206.
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French
Painters. London, 1829, 1: 81, no. 79.
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collectionsof Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., etc. Translated by Elizabeth Eastlake. London,
1854, 2: 200.
City Art Gallery. Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857.
Exh. cat. Manchester, City Art Gallery. London, 1857, 74, no. 1078.
Bürger, William. Trésors d’Art en Angleterre. Paris, 1865, 279.
Champlin, John Denison, and Charles C. Perkins. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. New York,1888, 3: 265.
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Traveler at Rest
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Royal Academy of Arts. Winter Exhibition: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased
Masters of the British School. Exh. cat. London, Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1894, 14, no. 49.
Roberts, William. Memorials of Christie’s: A Record of Art Sales from 1766–1896. London, 1897, 2:
156.
Lakenhal Museum. Fêtes de Rembrandt à Leyde: Catalogue de l’exposition de tableaux et de dessins deRembrandt et d’autres maîtres de Leyde, du dix-septième siècle. Exh. cat. Leiden, Lakenhal Museum.
Leiden, 1906, 12, no. 27.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon. Vienna, 1910, 2 :195.
Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et à l’éntranger pendant les XVIIIe et
XIXe siècles. Paris, 1911, 5: 187.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912. New York, 1913, 2: 777–78.
Graves, Algernon. Art Sales From Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century.
London, 1921, 2: 220.
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Pictures and Other Objects of Art Selected from the Collectionsof Mr. Robert Holford (1808–1892) mainly from Westonbirt in Gloucestershire. Exh. cat. London,
Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1921, 26, no. 35.Benson, Robert. The Holford Collection:
Dorchester House. London, 1927, 2:32, no. 156.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. Esslingen, 1928, 10: 28, no. 101.
Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs etGraveurs. Paris, 1953, 4: 117.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. Doornspijk, 1981, 1: 44–46; 2: 18–19, no. 16.
Moiso-Diekamp, Cornelia. Das Pendant in der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt
am Main, 1987, 383, no. D6.
Buvelot, Quentin. “Le Repo devant l’auberge.” In Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Museé Fabre deMontpellier. Edited by Quentin Buvelot, Michel Hilaire, and Oliver Zeder, 195, no. 6. Exh. cat. Paris,
Netherlands Institute; Montpellier, Fabre Museum. Paris and Montpellier, 1998.
Horowitz, Isabel. “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports.” In Copperas Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper, 1575–1775. Edited by Michael
Komanecky, 88n41. Exh. cat. Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum ofArt; The Hague, Mauritshuis. New York, 1999.
Laabs, Annegret, and Christoph Schölzel. Von der lustvollen Betrachtung der Bilder: Leidener Feinmaler
in der Dresdener Gemäldegalerie. Exh. cat. Dresden, Old Masters Picture Gallery. Leipzig, 2000, 65,
67n120.
Laabs, Annegret, and Christoph Schölzel. The Leiden fijnschilders from Dresden. Edited by Christiaan
Vogelaar, 69n18. Exh. cat. Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 2000.
Beaujean, Dieter. “Der Besuch im Atelier, um 1655.” In Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und Skulptur von© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Dürer bis Daumier. Edited by Ekkehard Mai and Kurt Wettengl, 328. Exh. cat. Munich, Haus der Kunst;
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum. Wolfratshausen, 2002.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot, 98–100, no. 10, 232, no. 16. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, National Galleryof Art. Zwolle, 2005.
McCarthy, Alexa.

“Traveler at Rest.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of

Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 2017, 46, no. 13. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du
Louvre. Paris, 2017.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Traveler at Rest.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection: The Age of Rembrandt. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt. Translated by Li Ying, 102–3; 187,
no. 41. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Journal of National Museum of China 169, no. 8 (2017): front cover.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 116–17.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Traveler at Rest.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The
Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina, 134–35;
238, no. 34. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State
Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
[Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Muséedu Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 43. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 136–7, no. 61. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]

Versions
Versions
1. Possibly Ary de Vois (1632/35–1680), after Frans van Mieris the Elder, A Traveler at Rest, oil on panel,
21.5 x 17.5 cm, previous sale, G. Tournier, Palais d’Orsay, Paris, 8 December 1977, no. 11.

2. Possibly Jan Miel (1599–1663), after Frans van Mieris the Elder, A Resting Traveler, 17th century, oil© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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on copper, 20 x 21 cm, Museu Nacional de Arte Antigua, Lisbon, inv. no. 527 Pint.

Technical Summary
The painting was examined in normal and ultraviolet light, without the benefit of X-radiographs, infrared
reflectography or microscopy.
The support is a thin metal plate, estimated to be copper possibly with a coating of gold.[1] It has been
adhered to a wooden panel with a vertical grain and thin wooden strips have been added to all four edges,
creating a collar. A cradle has been attached to the back of the panel.
The ground is either extremely thin or non-existent. The paint was applied wet-into-wet with the lights anddarkest darks painted on top of the mid-tones. The artist layered fine, delicate strokes on top of one another,dragging paint from the lower layer to blend the colors. He used broader strokes in the background and veryfine strokes in the figure. The foliage was painted in thin glazes. A 1.0cm high dark brown strip, which may
be a later addition, was painted along the bottom edge.
The copper is in plane, though there are slight indentations in the upper right quadrant and in the sitter’s
proper left thigh. A wavy, indented line is visible along the bottom but this may be in the paint or
varnish.There is an extremely find craquelure pattern throughout the paint, which is more visible in thedarks. Tiny paint losses mark the intersections of the cracks in the background. There are losses in the sitter’s
proper left sleeve, proper right chest and shoulder, and in the sky in the arch.
The support is a thin metal plate that is estimated to be copper. A small area of the plate is exposed in thebottom right corner, revealing a copper color. It may be coated with gold. It has been adhered, presumably
with glue, to a wooden panel with a vertical grain. Wooden strips have been added to all four edges, creatinga collar, so that the edges and back of the plate are completely obscured. A cradle with three verticalmembers and three horizontal member was attached to the back of the panel. The cradle extends onto thewooden strips.
Either a very thin ground or no ground is present. In cracks and areas of loss the copper plate is exposed andno ground is visible. However, the painting has a slightly lumpy, grainy texture. It is unclear if this isindicative of a ground or if the texture is in the plate and/or the paint.
The paint is estimated to be oil, though no analysis has been done. It was painted wet-into-wet with the lights
and darkest darks painted on top of the mid-tones. The artist layered fine, delicate strokes on top of one
another, dragging paint from the lower layer to blend the colors. He used broader strokes in the backgroundand very fine strokes in the figure. The foliage was painted in thin glazes. A dark brown strip, approximately
1.0 cm high, was painted along the bottom edge. It is unclear if this was a later addition.
The painting is coated with a natural resin varnish.
The copper plate is stable and remains in mostly in plane. There is a slight indentation in the upper rightquadrant. The indentation measures approximately 2cm by 4 cm. Another small indentation is found in the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Traveler at Rest
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sitter’s proper left thigh. A wavy, indented line is visible along the bottom but it is unclear if this indentation
is in the paint, the varnish or the copper plate.
An extremely fine craquelure pattern extends throughout the paint, though it is more visible in the darks. A
fair number of tiny paint losses mark the intersections of the cracks in the background, especially in theupper left quadrant, and in the sitter’s dark sleeves. There is a cluster of small losses in the sitter’s proper left
sleeve near his elbow. Additional losses are found in the sitter’s proper right chest and shoulder, above hishat. A larger loss is located in the sky in the arch.
The varnish is slightly thick, but it remains clear and even.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Isabel Horovitz, “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports,” in Michael
K. Komanecky et al., Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper, 1575-1775(Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Royal Cabinet of
Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague) (New York, 1999), 88 n. 41. Horovitz states that Charlotte Hale ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art communicated that the support had a layer of gold leaf over thecopper.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection