Master Paintings and Sculpture Part II

Attributed to Gerrit Dou

An elderly woman, traditionally identified as Rembrandt's mother

Auction Closed

January 27, 09:38 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Attributed to Gerrit Dou

Leiden 1613 - 1675

An elderly woman, traditionally identified as Rembrandt's mother

oil on panel, an oval

panel: 10¼ by 8½ in.; 26 by 21.4 cm.

framed: 16½ by 14½ in.; 41.9 by 36.8 cm.

Jean Dollfus (1823-1911), Paris;
Adrien Dollfus (1858-1921), Paris;
By whom sold, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 20 May 1912, lot 44;
Marcus Kappel (1839-1919), Berlin;
His deceased estate sale, Berlin, Cassirer & Helbing, 25 November 1930, lot 6;
A.W. Volz, The Hague, 1936;
With Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, 1949;
Private collection, Netherlands, 1953.

[i] Jean Dolffus (1823-1911) was an industrialist and famous art collector from the Alsace. He was married to Ida van Kattenwyke (1831-1897), from Dutch descent. Their son Adrien (1858-1921) was a well known carcinologist. Willem Martin locates the painting with Adrien Dolffus in 1901 and 1911, just as Cornelis Hofstede de Groot in 1907. In 1913, Martin lists the painting with Jean Dolffus. However, in 1912 the painting is in the sale of the collections of Jean Dolffus, who had passed the year before. Since the painting was in Bode’s Kappel catalogue in 1914, it must be assumed that Kappel (1839-1919) bought the painting in our just after the Dolffus sale.

Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d'art au profit de l'oeuvre des orphelins d'Alsace-Lorraine au Louvre, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1885, cat. no. 215 (as Gerard Dou);
W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, Leiden 1901, pp. 34, 211, cat. no. 184 (as Gerard Dou);
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke des hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen 1907-1928, 1 (1907), pp. 454-455, cat. no. 355 (as Gerard Dou);
W. Martin, Gerard Dou : sa vie et son oeuvre : Étude sur la peinture hollandaise et les marchands au dix-septième siècle, Paris 1911, p. 178, cat. no. 90 (as Gerard Dou);
W. Martin, Gerard Dou : des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildungen, Stuttgart 1913, p. 41 (as Gerard Dou);
W. von Bode, Die Gemäldesammlung Marcus Kappel in Berlin, Berlin 1914, p. 13, cat. no. 6 (as Gerard Dou);
Oude kunst uit Haagsch bezit, exhibition catalogue, The Hague 1936-1937, p. 25, cat. no. 65 (as Gerard Dou);
M. Huber et al., Rembrandt und seine Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Schaffhausen 1949, p. 38, cat. no. 21 (as Gerard Dou);
R. Baer, The paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss. New York University 1990, under cat. no. 7 (as version, ‘from the reproduction the painting appears to be a copy’).

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d'art au profit de l'oeuvre des orphelins d'Alsace-Lorraine au Louvre, 1885, no. 215 (as Gerard Dou);
Probably Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Kersttentoonstelling, 1931;
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Oude kunst uit Haagsch bezit, 1936-1937, no. 64 (as Gerard Dou);
Schaffhausen, Museum aller Heiligen, Rembrandt und seine Zeit, 1949, no. 21 (as Gerard Dou).

The present painting is a version of a work close to Gerrit Dou's example in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie (inv. 1720). The work depicts a model traditionally described as ‘Rembrandt’s mother’, an identification which originated in the 1679 inventory of the Amsterdam art dealer Clement de Jonghe (1624/25-1677), where a Rembrandt print depicting the same old woman is given that title.¹ Although the identification of the model as Rembrandt’s own mother seems doubtful, the subject does appear throughout the work of Rembrandt and his circle, notably Dou and Jan Lievens, from around 1630.

Here, an old, fragile woman is seated in a chair. In her hands she holds a folio size book in which she reads attentively. Her costly fur-lined purple cloak, golden chain, and money purse all indicate her considerable wealth. These expensive items contrast with her concentrated reading of what is undoubtedly a religious text. The image thus juxtaposes the transience of earthly life and all its riches with the seeking for eternal spiritual life. The origin of this iconography, that of an old woman reading a book, is derived from Rembrandt’s iconic Prophetes Hanna of 1631, in the Rijksmuseum. Dou's approach to the subject transformed the image of the Biblical seer into a more universal depiction of human piety.

1. Bartsch no. 351. For an overview of the history of the identification of certain models as Rembrandt’s family members, see: G. Korevaar, ‘Rembrandts moeder : Ontstaan, ontwikkeling en ontmanteling van een mythe’, in: Leiden 2006, pp. 33-52, esp. pp. 36-37.