Support The single, vertically grained oak plank is approx. 0.5 cm thick. The once arched top was squared off at some point with corner pieces and wooden strips on the left and right (approx. 1 cm); another one was added at the bottom (approx. 0.5 cm). The reverse shows no trace of bevelling and has a gouge mark in the centre. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1627. The plank could have been ready for use by 1638, but a date in or after 1644 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, light ground, which appears grey to the naked eye, does not extend over the edges of the support. It consists of white and transparent pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint does not extend over the edges of the support. The composition was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, using reserves. A brown undermodelling has become visible in a few places, for example in the girl’s right hand where dark contours can be detected. The lit areas are smooth, opaque and carefully blended, with no evident brushwork. Minor changes were made during the painting process. The red in the right sleeve cuff, for instance, was applied on top of a blue layer.
Gwen Tauber, 2021

Fair. A strong, tight, circular drying crack pattern can be found throughout, especially in the hair and the flesh tones, where there are also deep drying craters. Pinpoint losses are present throughout, and the paint is abraded overall, which may account for the somewhat blurred look. There are a few disturbing retouchings along the lower edge.

...; ? collection Hendrik van Heteren (1672-1749), The Hague;¹¹See E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, p. 192; T.L.J. Verroen, ‘‘Een verstandig ryk man’: De achttiende-eeuwse verzamelaar Adriaan Leonard van Heteren’, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985), pp. 17-61, esp. p. 37. his son, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren (1724-1800), The Hague (‘Een Meisje, die een Lamp in de hand heeft, zynde een Kaarsligt, door denzelven, h. 12 d. br. 9 en drie vierde d. [31.4 x 25.5 cm] P.’);²²‘Catalogus van Schilderyen, In’t Kabinet van den Heer Bewindhebber, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren, in ’s Hage’, in G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt: Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, II, The Hague 1752, pp. 451-62, esp. p. 454. Sluijter 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. 108, and R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, p. 79.5, suggest that the painting was in sale, Paul-Joseph Geelhand, Antwerp, 5 July 1784, no. 13, but that is ruled out by its presence in the Van Heteren collection. his third cousin and godson, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers (1794-1866), Rotterdam (‘Charmant tableau représentent une jeune fille une lampe à la main (bois. H. 8½ l. 6¾ [23 x 18.3 cm]’);³³Catalogue raisonné d’une collection de tableaux appartenant à Monsieur A.L. Gevers, Page de Leurs Majestés le Roi et la Reine de Hollande 1808; transcr. in E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, pp. 145-51, esp. p. 146, no. 25. from whom, with 136 other paintings (known as ‘Kabinet van Heteren Gevers’), fl. 100,000, to the museum, by decree of Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, and through the mediation of his father, Dirk Cornelis Gevers (1763-1839), 8 June 1809⁴⁴T.L.J. Verroen, ‘‘Een verstandig ryk man’: De achttiende-eeuwse verzamelaar Adriaan Leonard van Heteren’, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985), pp. 17-61, esp. p. 17, notes 2, 3.

Object number: SK-A-89

At the beginning of the 1650s Gerrit Dou embarked on a series of genre paintings in which the light comes from an artificial source such as a candle or an oil lamp – a speciality that was already being praised by his contemporaries.⁸⁸S. van Hoogstraten, Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: Anders de zichtbaere werelt: Verdeelt in negen leerwinkels, Rotterdam 1678, p. 268. On Dou’s nocturnes see Naumann in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exh. cat. Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/London (Royal Academy of Arts) 1984, pp. 187-88; M. Neumeister, Das Nachtstück mit Kunstlicht in der niederländischen Malerei und Graphik des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Ikonographische und koloristische Aspekte, Petersberg 2003, pp. 327-39. One specific type within this group features a young woman leaning forward whose face is illuminated by the glow from a light source, which may be only partially visible, that she holds in her extended hand. As far as we know, the first of these scenes is from 1656.⁹⁹Present whereabouts unknown, formerly Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister; illustrated in W. Martin, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildunge, Stuttgart/Berlin 1913, p. 159, who read the last digit as a ‘6’. Dou repeated the subject up until the 1660s. Martin assigned the Rijksmuseum picture to Dou’s latest works from around 1670,¹⁰¹⁰W. Martin, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildunge, Stuttgart/Berlin 1913, p. 156. but Baer dated it more accurately to around 1660, when Dou produced several comparable versions.¹¹¹¹R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, p. 79.5. Compare, for example, those in Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst (1657-58), formerly Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek (1658), and Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum (c. 1660); illustrated in W. Martin, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildunge, Stuttgart/Berlin 1913, pp. 158, 154, 153 respectively.

The superb three-dimensional effect of the painting derives from the girl’s pose as she leans forward, the spouted oil lamp extended towards the viewer,¹²¹²See W.G. Hartstra, ‘Olielampen’, Antiek 4 (1969), pp. 315-25, esp. p. 315, for this type of lamp. and the ingenious play of light and shadow on the window frame. Her expectant look, which led to the work being called The Inquisitive Girl for a long time,¹³¹³W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, diss., Leiden University 1901, p. 236, no. 326. is directed towards someone outside the picture. Sluijter interpreted the scene in an erotic sense because of the burning lamp, which, like a candle, was an object that could have sexual implications in the hands of young women.¹⁴¹⁴Sluijter 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. 109. See also U. Kleinmann, Rahmen und Gerahmtes: Das Spiel mit Darstellung und Bedeutung: Eine Untersuchung des illusionistischen Rahmenmotivs im Oeuvre Gerrit Dous, Frankfurt 1996, p. 118. The clothing identifies the girl as a maidservant, a class of person described in several seventeenth-century writings as a seductress and embodiment of lasciviousness.¹⁵¹⁵S. Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, London 1987, pp. 454-60. Two figures and a candle on a table can vaguely be seen behind her on the left. Dou’s Girl at a Window with a Lantern in Vienna has people playing cards in the background,¹⁶¹⁶Kunsthistorisches Museum; illustrated in R. Trnek, Die holländischen Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts in der Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, coll. cat. Vienna 1992, pl. 547, no. 583. and the Rijksmuseum painting may have a similar scene there which has become very difficult to make out.¹⁷¹⁷That background is more clearly visible in the print after the Vienna painting by Gerard Valck; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, XXXI, Amsterdam 1987, p. 88, no. 43. R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, p. 79.5, wrongly states that the print was made after the Rijksmuseum painting. In this context it would be an allusion to a brothel or inn, reinforcing the erotic nature of the picture.

The painting is in poor condition. In addition to the barely legible background there is little left to be seen of a two-branched chandelier hanging above the girl or of a curtain across the top of the interior. The work was recorded with the larger measurements of 31.4 x 25.5 centimetres in the Van Heteren Gevers collection in 1752, but in its catalogue of 1808 the picture was considerably smaller at 23 x 18.3 centimetres.¹⁸¹⁸See Provenance. Its present size is 18.8 x 17.2 cm. The lack of bevelling confirms that the panel was cut down in the interim. It cannot be ruled out, however, that the arched top, which was later made square, is original.¹⁹¹⁹Note RMA. That is also assumed by R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, p. 79.5. Dou regularly used that format, as in his Girl with a Candle of 1657-58 in Copenhagen.²⁰²⁰Statens Museum for Kunst; illustrated in W. Martin, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde in 247 Abbildunge, Stuttgart/Berlin 1913, p. 158.

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. 7, no. 14; W. Martin, Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schildersleven van zijn tijd, diss., Leiden University 1901, p. 236, no. 326; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, I, Esslingen/Paris 1907, p. 415, no. 227; Sluijter 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, pp. 108-09; R. Baer, The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), diss., New York University 1990, II, pp. 79.5, 80.6, no. 80

1809, p. 19, no. 76; 1853, p. 9, no. 67 (fl. 1,500); 1858, p. 29, no. 65; 1880, p. 86, no. 75; 1887, p. 36, no. 278; 1903, p. 84, no. 796; 1934, p. 84, no. 796; 1960, p. 85, no. 796; 1976, p. 198, no. A 89

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2026, 'Gerrit Dou, Girl with an Oil Lamp at a Window, c. 1660', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027801