Support The panel consists of two vertically grained oak planks (approx. 28.1 and 27.1 cm), approx. 0.5 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has plane marks and regularly spaced saw marks. Dendrochronology has shown that both planks are from the same tree and that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1613. The panel could have been ready for use by 1624, but a date in or after 1630 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the top edge of the support and over the ones at the bottom and on the left and right. It consists of two similar, off-white layers which contain white pigment and some ochre-coloured pigment particles.
Underdrawing Infrared imaging revealed a rapid sketch of fine, dark lines in a liquid medium in the fur hat, the contours of the face and the hand.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The composition was applied in just a few layers and appears to be laid in with a dark brown paint in broad, rapid brushstrokes which are apparent, for example, in the paint surface along the contour of the headscarf, and in infrared photographs, especially in the clothing. A wider version of the woman’s face, which can clearly be seen in the X-radiograph and also with the naked eye, was reserved in the first, warm grey layer of the background, after which the cooler top paint of the background was applied around the new contour of the face (also visible in the X-radiograph). The flesh tones were executed quite thickly with paint containing coarse white and red pigment particles. The brushstrokes are clearly noticeable, and were swiftly and fluently placed, wet in wet. The colour of the ground was left to shine through in some areas of the composition, for example in the fur hat. The headscarf was applied on top of the dry background and hat. The letters on the right-hand page of the book were added on top of the dry white paint, whereas the grey of the letters on the upper half of the left-hand page was brushed on wet in wet. Infrared photography revealed a modification in the lower left corner where the woman’s upper legs were originally planned but not executed.
Erika Smeenk-Metz, 2008

J. Wadum and C. van der Elst, ‘Attribution et désattribution: Les portraits de Nuremberg et de La Haye’, Dossier de l’art 61 (1999), pp. 34-43, esp. p. 42

Good. A fine, stable crack, approx. 9 cm, runs down from the top, at approx. 10 cm from the right edge, through the paint layer and slightly into the panel. The paint surface is somewhat abraded throughout. The varnish has slightly yellowed and is rather matte.

…; ? collection William Wells Esq. (1767-1845), Redleaf, near Penshurst (Kent), 1829;¹¹J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, I, London 1829, p. 45, no. 138 (‘The portrait of an elderly female, said to be the mother of the artist. This picture is painted the size of nature, and is evidently the work of Dow, when in the school of Rembrandt. Collection of W. Wells, Esq. 26 in. by 21 in.-P. [66 x 53.3 cm]’). ? his sale, London (Christie & Manson), 12 May 1848 sqq., no. 56, £36.15, to Evans;²²Copy RKD. The description of the painting is the same as in J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, I, London 1829, p. 45, no. 138; see preceding note.…; or purchased by the Hoekwater family, The Hague, c. 1830;³³Note RMA. on loan from Vice-Admiral Anthony Hendrik Hoekwater (1854-1912), Hilversum, to the museum, July 1889-10 November 1891;⁴⁴Note RMA. by whom donated to the museum, 1912

Object number: SK-A-2627

Credit line: A.H. Hoekwater Bequest, The Hague

The model for An Old Woman Reading a Lectionary regularly features in the early work of Rembrandt and Gerrit Dou. She is traditionally identified as Rembrandt’s mother, Neeltgen Willemsdr van Zuytbroeck,⁸⁸See C. Vogelaar and G. Korevaar (eds.), Rembrandts moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2005-06, passim, with various examples. but there is no firm evidence for this. The list of 29 paintings in the collection of Johan de Bye in 1665 mentions ‘1 old woman with 1 book in front of her, unframed’, but it is impossible to say whether that was the picture now in the Rijksmuseum.⁹⁹The list was published in W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, diss., Leiden University 1901, pp. 171-72, and in T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W. Fock and A.J. van Dissel (eds.), Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, IIIb, Leiden 1988, p. 486.

Three paintings of related subjects in which Dou depicted the same model deep in concentration as she reads are on considerably smaller panels, which is more usual in Dou’s oeuvre.¹⁰¹⁰R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, pp. 3.1-4.3, 7.1-7.3, nos. 3, 4, 7; illustrated in C. Vogelaar and G. Korevaar (eds.), Rembrandts moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2005-06, pp. 118, 119. That is perhaps why Michel continued to assign it to Rembrandt, but Martin’s attribution to Dou is generally accepted.¹¹¹¹É. Michel, Rembrandt: Sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris 1893, p. 39; W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, diss., Leiden University 1901, p. 211. Such stylistic features as the attention paid to the detailed rendering of certain surfaces, and the treatment of the wrinkled skin argue for Dou’s authorship. Further support for the attribution is provided by the presence and nature of the underdrawing.¹²¹²See Technical notes. There are underdrawings in other early paintings by Dou but none have yet been found beneath works by other artists active in Rembrandt’s circle around 1630.¹³¹³J. Wadum, ‘Rembrandt under the Skin: The Mauritshuis Portrait of Rembrandt with Gorget in Retrospect’, Oud Holland 114 (2000), pp. 164-87, esp. pp. 170, 184. Van Suchtelen in Q. Buvelot (ed.), Portraits in the Mauritshuis 1430-1790, coll. cat. The Hague 2004, p. 230.

Although the chronology of Dou’s early oeuvre is problematic due to the lack of dated works before 1637,¹⁴¹⁴On which see R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, I, pp. 9-33. there is reason to believe that this picture was made around 1631-32. The immediate prototype usually cited for this dating is Rembrandt’s Old Woman Reading, probably the Prophetess Anna of 1631 – a painting of the same subject and with a closely related composition.¹⁵¹⁵SK-A-3066. See, for example, Baer in A.K. Wheelock Jr (ed.), Gerrit Dou 1613-1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art)/London (Dulwich Picture Gallery)/The Hague (Mauritshuis) 2000-01, p. 66. The presence of green pigments in the rather illegible passage at the bottom left in Dou’s picture suggests that the clothing was far clearer originally. The proposed dating is supported by the dendrochronology, which points to a date in or after 1630.¹⁶¹⁶See Technical notes. In addition to Rembrandt’s model, the profile perspective is reminiscent of the studies of heads that Jan Lievens painted in Leiden.¹⁷¹⁷On which see Vogelaar in C. Vogelaar and G. Korevaar (eds.), Rembrandts moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2005-06, p. 119, among others.

It is suspected that Dou followed Rembrandt in presenting his old woman as the prophetess Anna,¹⁸¹⁸W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, p. 525, no. 245; R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, pp. 8.1-8.3, no. 8. or that this type of figure was regarded more generally as a prophetess or soothsayer.¹⁹¹⁹J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, I, The Hague/Boston/London 1982, p. 365. However, there are other figures in Dou’s early tronies and genre scenes with fur-trimmed garments and fantasy headgear, and they do not allude to biblical characters but to profane ones.²⁰²⁰The clasp below the woman’s chin can also be seen in Dou’s Heraclitus in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, illustrated in C. Vogelaar and G. Korevaar (eds.), Rembrandts moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2005-06, p. 158. The winter clothing may be an allusion to the woman’s advanced age, which Dou also stressed with the closely observed wrinkles in her hand and face.²¹²¹On old age as ‘the winter of life’ see A. Janssen, Grijsaards in zwart-wit: De verbeelding van de ouderdom in de Nederlandse prentkunst (1550-1650), Zutphen 2007, pp. 179-80. Rotermund has demonstrated that she is holding a lectionary, a collection of scriptural readings for all the days in the liturgical calendar which Catholics read at home, much as Protestants read the Bible.²²²²H.-M. Rotermund, ‘Rembrandts Bibel’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 8 (1957), pp. 123-50, esp. pp. 134-36; J. van Eijnatten and F.A. van Lieburg, Nederlandse religiegeschiedenis, Hilversum 2005, p. 192. Above the illustration on the left-hand page are instructions that Luke 19 was to be read on ‘the day of the dedication of the church’ (the feast of the dedication of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome).²³²³A rather unconvincing connection between the choice of this book of the Bible and St Luke’s role as the patron saint of painters is made in E.J. Sluijter, M. Enklaar and P. Nieuwenhuizen (eds.), Leidse fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge, 1630-1760, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1988, p. 98. At the beginning of this chapter Luke describes Christ’s entry into Jericho and his conversation with the tax collector Zacchaeus, who is giving away half of his worldly goods.²⁴²⁴Luke 19:1-9. The illustration on the page shows a fragment of the story about him climbing into a sycamore tree to get a better view of Christ. This passage was chosen to illustrate the old woman’s exemplary piety, for like Zacchaeus she values spiritual contemplation above earthly affairs.²⁵²⁵Vogelaar in C. Vogelaar and G. Korevaar (eds.), Rembrandts moeder: Mythe en werkelijkheid, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2005-06, pp. 119-20, sees the painting above all as a vanitas scene.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, I, London 1829, p. 45, no. 138; W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, diss., Leiden University 1901, p. 211, no. 188; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, I, Esslingen/Paris 1907, p. 444, no. 352; H.-M. Rotermund, ‘Rembrandts Bibel’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 8 (1957), pp. 123-50, esp. pp. 134-39; P. Hecht, De Hollandse fijnschilders: Van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1989-90, pp. 24-27, no. 1; R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, pp. 8.1-8.3, no. 8; Baer in A.K. Wheelock Jr (ed.), Gerrit Dou 1613-1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art)/London (Dulwich Picture Gallery)/The Hague (Mauritshuis) 2000-01, pp. 66-67, no. 2, with earlier literature

1920, p. 129, no. 791a; 1934, p. 83, no. 791a; 1960, p. 86, no. 798 A1; 1976, p. 197, no. A 2627

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2026, 'Gerrit Dou, An Old Woman Reading a Lectionary, c. 1631 - c. 1632', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027805