The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 29, 2023

A Young Woman

1640

Gerrit Dou

(Dutch, 1613–1675)

Netherlands, 17th century

Oil on wood

Framed: 35 x 31 x 5 cm (13 3/4 x 12 3/16 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 16.3 x 12.1 cm (6 7/16 x 4 3/4 in.)

Bequest of William G. Mather 1951.325

Location

not on view

Description

This painting may depict a specific person as in a traditional portrait. The less formal costume and the tight focus on the head, however, may mean that it is a tronie, a popular category of painting among Dutch painters in the 1600s. While painted from living models, tronies represent more general types of people, designed as beautiful images rather than accurate likenesses of people known to their patrons.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed left center: "GDov."; "[GD in monogram]"

Provenance
Comte d’Oultremont, Brussels, 1842
[Henry Reinhardt, New York]
William G. Mather, Cleveland, 1912.
Bequest of William G. Mather, 1951.
Citations
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. Pt. 9. Supplement. London: Smith and Son, 1829. Mentioned: p. 21, no. 67
Martin, Wilhelm. Het Leven en de Werken van Gerrit Dou. Leiden, 1901. Mentioned: no. 199
Martin, W., and Clara Bell. Gerard Dou. London, UK: G. Bell and Sons, 1902. Reproduced: p. 106, no. 19
Hofstede de Groot, C. Beschreibendes und kritisches verzeichnis der werke des hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts; nach dem muster. Esslingen a. N.: P. Neff, 1907. Reproduced: p. 456, no. 362; vol. 1
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 229; Mentioned: p. 229-230
Francis, Henry S. "Bequest of William G. Mather, Paintings." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XXXVIII, no. 8 (October, 1951) 197-198.
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” September 26, 1951, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. Thesis M.A. Oberlin College 1956. Reproduced: vol. 2, p. 162, no. 7
Exhibition history

Exposition Nèerlandaise de Beaux-Arts. Brussels, Belgium (1882).

Dutch Painting, The Golden Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 27, 1955).

Seventeenth Century Dutch Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 18-June 8, 1959).

Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.325