Gerrit Dou Leiden 1613 - 1675

Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729), Elector of Mainz and Archbishop of Bamberg, Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden, after 1719;
Thence by descent to Count Schönborn of Pommersfelden;
His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 17, 1867, lot 24, for 2500 ff to Bamberg;
Vice Consul Bamberg, Brussels;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, January 28, 2000, lot 39;
There purchased by the present collector.

Dr. Ronnie Baer inspected the present painting in the original prior to the sale in 2000, (see Provenance below) and confirmed the attribution to Dou.  She dates it to circa 1665-70.

Dou is considered to be the founder of the Leiden school of fijnschilders ("fine painters"), known for their small scale paintings executed in a highly finished style and with exquisite detail.  His father, Douwe Jansz., who owned a workshop for the production of church glass in Leiden, sent him to study the craft of glass painting in the workshop of Pieter Couwenhorn, the most important and well connected glazier in the city.  Dou was a member of the glaziers’ guild from 1625-27.  Dou’s early training as a glass painter undoubtedly influenced his subsequent painting style.  As Dr. Baer points out:  "The technique of cutting glass with a diamond encouraged a steady hand…The meticulousness necessary to transfer designs on paper to glass may explain Dou’s predilection for small works, while the polish resulting from the firing of painted glass might have provided a model for the characteristic smooth finish of Dou’s paintings and governed his use of panel (rather than canvas) as a support better suited to obtaining this finish" (see "The Life and Art of Gerrit Dou," in Gerrit Dou 1613-1675, Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, catalogue of the exhibition, Washington 2000, p. 29).

On February 14, 1628, at age thirteen, Dou began his apprenticeship with Rembrandt van Rijn who had returned from Amsterdam to his native city to set up as an independent artist.  He remained in his studio for three years, until Rembrandt again left for Amsterdam.  By this time, Dou had developed a masterful technique.   During his own lifetime his work was highly esteemed; by 1648, when he is recorded as one of the founder-members of the Leiden Guild of St. Luke, his paintings commanded some of the highest prices of their day, and he had already gained a remarkable international reputation.  In 1660, the States General of the Netherlands included several paintings by Dou among their gifts to Charles II of England on the occasion of his restoration to the throne.

Much of his early subject matter, such as portraits and tronies (head studies) was borrowed directly from Rembrandt, as well as his use of light and dark to create dramatic effects.  The theme of the solitary hermit or religious figure in prayer is also one that Dou borrowed from Rembrandt early in his career and returned to near the end of his life.   His earliest depictions of this subject date from 1635, and the latest dated examples to 1670, five years before his death.  The figures vary between full-length and half-length and are sometimes portrayed before crucifixes or holding rosaries and bibles, or kneeling in landscapes or among ruins.  In the present painting, Dou has placed the figure in a three-quarter pose and close to the picture frame.  However, here he has stripped the hermit of all accoutrements.  The figure is portrayed as simply as possible, with hands clasped in prayer, emphasizing the old man's humble and reverential attitude.  Dou’s characteristically fine brushwork can be seen in the detailed rendering of his beard and forehead wrinkles.   A very similar hermit figure by Dou, dated 1670, using the same three-quarter pose, but showing the figure with a rosary and bible and against a background of ruins, is in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (see Fig. 1).   In the background of that painting, Dou has included the Vanitas symbols of an extinguished candle, hourglass and skull representing the transitory nature of earthly life.  The figures in both of these compositions may be loosely based on the figure of St. Jerome in Rembrandt’s etching of circa 1635 (see Fig. 2).  Dou, however, removed any iconographic references in his hermit paintings to specific saints or individuals in order to attract a wider audience.  The idea of retreating from civilization, with its pursuit of worldly goods and pleasures, to a life of quiet contemplation was a concept that had a strong appeal to his 17^th century viewers. 

This painting was for many years in the distinguished Schönborn collection at Pommersfelden.  Lothar Frans von Schönborn, Bishop of Bamberg (see Provenance below) formed one of the most important collections of paintings in 18th century Germany.  He began collecting in 1705 and within fourteen years had amassed nearly 1000 works by artists such as Rubens, Titian, Dou, Reni, Brueghel, van Dyck and Rembrandt.  The majority of the paintings were displayed at his great palace of Pommersfelden in Oberfranken.  Hofstede de Groot (see Literature below) lists nine paintings by Dou that were in the collection at Pommersfelden.