Jacob van Spreeuwen
Leiden 1609 – 1610 – after 1650

Artist in his Studio

oil on panel

12"×14 1/2" (30.5 cm×36.8 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Thomas Jefferson Bryan (1802-1870), New York, by 1853 By whom given to the New York Historical Society in 1867 (inv. 1867.114) New York Historical Society Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, January 12, 1995, lot 44

LITERATURE: Catalogue of the Bryan Gallery of Christian Art from the Earliest Masters to the Present Time, New York 1853, no. 91, p. 8 (as Gerard Dou) R. Grant White, Companion to the Bryan Gallery of Christian Art: containing critical descriptions of the pictures and biographical sketches of the painters; with an introductory essay and an index, New York, 1853, no. 91, p. 57 (as Gerard Dou) Catalogue of the Gallery of Art of The New York Historical Society, New York, 1915, no. B-114, p. 71 (as Gerard Dou) Seymour Slive, "Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in a Studio" in The Burlington Magazine, CVI 1964, pp. 483-486, illustrated fig. 5 (as Gerrit Dou) Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America, 1986, p. 177 (as from Dou’s circle).

NOTE: The light shines brightly on a young artist in his studio. His dog stares attentively at the easel waiting for the next stroke. A plaster cast after Michelangelo stands on a table to the artist’s left, a source of inspiration and guidance.

It is hardly surprising that this painting was long regarded as an autograph work by Gerrit Dou. It is Jacob Van Spreeuwen’s dramatic use of light and shadow that most strongly reflect Dou’s early work, which in itself is reminiscent of Rembrandt.

It has been suggested that Van Spreeuwen was a pupil of Dou’s, but there is no supporting documentation. There has been further speculation that he worked in Rembrandt’s studio but his too cannot be substantiated. Not a great deal is known about the Leiden genre painter except for the obvious influence of these two great masters, the body of his work being concealed under wrong attributions.

The Scholar in his Study at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, is among the definitive works by Van Spreeuwen, and shares the most common elements with our painting.{1}

Also long thought of as by Dou, they have almost identical interiors with the same objects such as the overturned large leather book and ebony and gold gorget displayed in lower right foregrounds. Raleigh’s scholar and our painter are seated in large chairs, slightly to the left of the center, next to tables flanked by columns hung with pouches. In Raleigh’s painting a mandolin is on display, in ours a violin, both meant to underline the interlocking nature of scholarly pursuits among the arts. Both are depictions of quiet contemplation by lone figures pursuing their chosen paths.

{1}See: W. Sumonwski, Gemalde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau/ Pfalz 1983, vo. IV, no. 1712, illustrated

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