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Seated Woman with a Cushion and Book on her Lap
Salomon de Bray, 1641-09-06
Portret van een zittende vrouw met een boek op een kussen op haar schoot.
- Artwork typedrawing
- Object numberRP-T-1954-200
- Dimensionsheight 239 mm x width 169 mm
- Physical characteristicsblack chalk, heightened with white chalk, on paper toned yellow
Identification
Title(s)
Seated Woman with a Cushion and Book on her Lap
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1954-200
Description
Portret van een zittende vrouw met een boek op een kussen op haar schoot.
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
draughtsman: Salomon de Bray
Dating
1641-09-06
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Material and technique
Physical description
black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on paper toned yellow
Dimensions
height 239 mm x width 169 mm
Acquisition and rights
Acquisition
purchase 1954
Copyright
Provenance
…; possibly sale H.C. Valkema Blouw, duplicates from the Rijksprentenkabinet et al., Amsterdam (Fr. Muller et Cie), 2 March 1954 _sqq_., lot 285 (H.C. Valkema Blouw section: ‘Femme assise dans un fauteuil. Pierre noire sur paper preparé jaune. Haut 26.7, larg. 18.2 cm.’), PRICE[, to ‘Valkema Blouw’; acquired from J.P. Valkema Blouw (1884-1954), 1954
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Documentation
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Salomon de Bray
Seated Woman with a Cushion and Book on her Lap
1641
Inscriptions
dated by the artist: centre left, in black chalk, 1641 9/6 (i.e. 6 September 1641)
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: none
Provenance
…; possibly sale H.C. Valkema Blouw, duplicates from the Rijksprentenkabinet et al., Amsterdam (Fr. Muller et Cie), 2 March 1954 sqq., lot 285 (H.C. Valkema Blouw section: ‘Femme assise dans un fauteuil. Pierre noire sur paper preparé jaune. Haut 26.7, larg. 18.2 cm.’), PRICE[, to ‘Valkema Blouw’; acquired from J.P. Valkema Blouw (1884-1954), 1954
Object number: RP-T-1954-200
Entry
Salomon de Bray made only a few portrait drawings. With its delicate, carefully drawn contours, occasional strong accents and juxtaposition of even hatchings and open passages, this drawing is closest in style to his charming red chalk study of the twin children of his nephew Simon, Clara and Albert de Bray Asleep in their Cradle (1646), in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York (inv. no. III, 176).1J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), p. 405, no. Z. 104; J. Shoaf Turner, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, 2 vols., coll. cat. New York 2006, no. 44. It has a more informal and domestic look than Salomon’s painted portraits. The subject may have been a slightly older member of the family, whose large cartwheel ruff had been out of fashion for some time by 1641.
Peter Schatborn, 1998
Literature
‘Aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 3 (1955), p. 71; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 65
Citation
P. Schatborn, 1998, 'Salomon de Bray, _, 1641-09-06', in J. Turner (ed.), _(under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200119020
(accessed 14 December 2025 09:05:24).Footnotes
- 1J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), p. 405, no. Z. 104; J. Shoaf Turner, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, 2 vols., coll. cat. New York 2006, no. 44.