Pieter Hermansz. Verelst

With Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, by 1905;

By whom sold, Paris, 25–28 May 1907, no. 37 (as Gerard Dou), for 6,900 francs, to ‘Schnell’;

Sara Wilkinson de Santamarina y Marsengo (1870–c. 1962), Buenos Aires;

Ercilia Cabral Hunter de Anchorena (1880–1972), Buenos Aires;

By whose Heirs sold, Buenos Aires, J.C. Naón & Cia S.A, 20–28 November 1972, lot 2 (as Gerrit Dou);

Anonymous sale, Buenos Aires, J.C. Naón & Cia S.A, 5–10 December 2012, lot 122 (as Gerrit Dou), for $27,570;

Anonymous sale, Bedford Hills, NY, Shapiro Auctions, 27 January 2024, lot 367 (as after Gerrit Dou);

Where acquired. 

Amsterdam, Frederick Mueller & Cie., Tercentenaire de Rembrandt, 1906, no. 32 (as G. Dou).

Illustrated Catalogue of the Ninth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters... being a portion of the Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris 1905, p. 14, no. 8, reproduced (as Gerard Dou);

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. I, London 1908, p. 443, no. 308 (as Gerard Dou);

W. Martin, Klassiker der Kunst ... Gerard Dou, Stuttgart and Berlin 1913, p. 83, reproduced (as Gerard Dou);

R. Hunnewell, Gerrit Dou's Self Portraits and Depictions of the Artist, PhD thesis, Boston University, Boston 1983, p. 541, fig. 230, reproduced (as anonymous painter);

R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), PhD thesis, New York University, New York 1990, n.p. (under Appendix A: Untraced works of undetermined attribution).

This painting can be attributed to the young Pieter Hermansz. Verelst, working in the style of the early Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), an artist with whom he may have trained in his earliest years of productivity. It is a variation on a number of compositions set in a very similar space, such as Dou's Man writing by an easel in an artist's studio, formerly in the collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III and sold in these New York rooms on 21 May 2025, lot 27, for $5,680,000.¹

We are grateful to Dr Eddy Schavemaker for proposing the attribution to Pieter Verelst on the basis of digital images.

¹ Oil on panel, 31.4 x 24.8 cm.