All works in Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum

Constantijn Verhout

Seated Woman, Reading a Book

? Gouda, c. 1650 - c. 1660

Object data

black chalk, with accents in oiled charcoal

height 235 mm × width 174 mm

Inscriptions

  • inscribed: upper left, in graphite, in a late seventeenth- or eighteenth-century hand, G: Metsú

  • stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: coat of arms, plump animal (chubby elephant?) within a circle, surmounted by a crown

Provenance

…; sale, Nicolaas Nieuhoff (1733-76, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 14 April 1777 sqq., Album D, no. 287 (‘Een fraay studie beeldje, een vrouwtje met een bonte mantel om, zittende, in een boek te leezen, fix met zwart kryt geteekent, door G. Metzu’), fl. 23:-:-, to ‘Roos’;1 ...; ? sale, Theodorus van Duysel (?-1784, The Hague), Amsterdam (Van der Schley), 11 October 1784, Album U, no. 1377 (‘Een zittend leezend Vrouwtje, met zwart kryt, door G. Metzu’), with one other drawing, fl. 1:10:- for both, to ‘Heemskerck’;2 ...; ? sale, Daniel van Diepen (1736-1796, Haarlem), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 8 April 1805 sqq., Album Z, no. 1 (‘Een zittende Vrouw, schynende aandachtig te leezen; fraay met zwart kryt geteekend, door G. Metzu.’), fl. 11, to the dealer C. Josi;3 ...; collection Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam;4 his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album L, no. 4 (‘Gabriel Metsu. Eene zittende Vrouw, lezende in een boek. Breed met zw. krijt.’), fl. 10, to the dealer ‘De Vries’ for Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 317, fl. 540, to the dealer H.J. Balfoort for the Vereniging Rembrandt;5 from whom acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 1885

Object number: RP-T-1885-A-496

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

Copyright: Public domain

The artist

Entry

This drawing was traditionally attributed to Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), the name under which it entered the Rijksmuseum. In 1990 Schatborn reassigned it and two other sheets in the museum to Constantijn Verhout (inv. nos. RP-T-1967-92 and RP-T-1937-70), both also previously given to Metsu.

Schatborn identified five drawings in other collections that could also be attributed to the little-known Verhout, who, as a painter, specialized in genre scenes with one or two half-length figures: Standing Boy Wearing a Hat in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. no. Tu 54,1), also formerly given to Metsu;9 Seated Boy Looking for Fleas in his Jacket in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. no. C 2042), where it is catalogued as by Jan Miel (1599-1664);10 Standing Boy at a Table in the Kupferstichkabinet, Berlin (KdZ 14004), formerly classified as manner of Gerard ter Borch II (1617-1681);11 Elegant Young Man Seated on a Block, which appeared on the Amsterdam art market as by Metsu in 1991,12 but was offered as Verhout when it resurfaced on the New York art market in 2007;13 and Young Man Seated on a Bench, in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (inv. no. Mas 1888), formerly given to Anthonie Palamedesz (1602-1673).14

This initial group of eight sheets has been augmented by three others, bringing the artist’s possible drawn oeuvre to eleven works. The proposed additions are: Young Man Seated on a Low Plinth, Turned to the Left in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-1301), a proposal advanced by Leonore van Sloten;15 and two re-attributions suggested by the present writer, the Rijksmuseum’s Seated Boy, Drawing (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4579), previously given to Godefridus Schalcken (1643-1706); and a Seated Young Man, which was on the London art market in 2005 and in 2014 with the dealer Otto Naumann, New York.16

Several of these drawings may have been drawn from the same young male model, with only minor variations in dress. Another recurring motif is a book used as a studio prop in all four of the Rijksmuseum’s drawings. In the present sheet, a book is being read by the female figure; in inv. no. RP-T-1937-70, a young man is apparently recording sums in an account book; in inv. no. RP-T-1967-92, a book serves as seat cushion; and in inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4579, a portfolio is propped up on the desk against the wall.

Another common feature of the drawings now given to Verhout is the attention paid to the rendering of surface textures through the soft handling of the chalk, as in the furry trim of the woman’s cape. Occasionally, the artist used charcoal soaked in linseed oil to strengthen the short, subtle accents along the contours. Due to the oiliness of the material, these lines have bled through to the verso. As can be seen by the pentimenti next to the left hand, the position of hand and book was originally a bit lower than in the final state.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

Literature

P. Schatborn, ‘Dutchmen Found in Copenhagen: Figure Drawings by Simon Kick and Constantijn Verhout’, in V. Villadsen (ed.), European Drawings from Six Centuries: Festschrift to Erik Fischer, Copenhagen 1990, pp. 194-202 (fig. 13); P. Schatborn and L. van Sloten, Old Drawings, New Names: Rembrandt and his Contemporaries, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, p. 173, under nos. 59-60

Citation

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Constantijn Verhout, Seated Woman, Reading a Book, Gouda, c. 1650 - c. 1660', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.60982

(accessed 24 November 2024 00:43:46).

Footnotes