Anna Maria van Schurman

1657

Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen

Painter, English, 1593 - 1661

Shown from the waist up, a woman looks at us steadily from behind an oval opening in this vertical portrait, which is painted entirely in tones of sepia and golden brown. The woman’s shoulders and face are angled to our left, but she looks at us with large, dark eyes. She has a narrow face with a slightly bumped nose, high cheekbones, a dimple under her lower lip, and her mouth is closed. Her dark hair is pulled back, and curls fall to her shoulders. The bodice of her dress and the voluminous sleeves glint with highlights, suggesting satin or silk. A sheer cloth covering her chest may be lined with pearls, and bows are tied at her shoulders and over her breastbone. She holds one long-fingered hand up to touch the ribbon at her chest, and she wears a ring on that pinky. She holds a closed book by the spine with her other hand down by her waist. A curtain fills most of the background within the oval opening but is pulled aside to show a church tower to the left. The oval opening appears to be ornamented on our side with carved, chubby babies in the lower corners holding a blank banner, paint palette, brushes, maulstick, and books. At the upper corners are a drawing, drafting tools, globe, lute, and caduceus. The artist signed and dated the painting near the woman’s right elbow, to our left: “Cornelius Ionson Van Ceulen fecit 1657.”

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Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen, a portrait painter of Flemish descent, lived and worked in both England and the Netherlands. He presumably trained in the northern Netherlands before establishing himself as an independent master in London around 1618. Combining fluid brushstrokes with a keen interest in the particularities of his sitters’ features, Jonson created original likenesses that earned him a large number of commissions. His hallmark paintings of the 1620s and 1630s—elegant bust-length portraits occasionally set within a trompe l’oeil oval frame—strongly appealed to the British gentry. His best portraits, including this sensitive rendering, nevertheless date from his later Dutch period (1643–1661).

This grisaille, or monochromatic painting, a design for a print by Cornelis van Dalen the Younger (1638–1659/1664) that was first published around 1657, depicts a learned woman of international renown: Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678). Van Schurman was the very first woman allowed to attend classes at a Dutch university (though a screen separated her from her fellow students). In addition to learning twelve languages, she became well versed in theology, philosophy, botany, and medicine. She wrote a grammar book for the Ethiopian language and experimented with poetry and the visual arts. Jonson has depicted her in a fanciful dress and elegant pose reminiscent of court paintings by Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) while rendering her face in his own characteristically minute (and presumably unidealized) manner. The book and the various attributes bordering the picture refer to Van Schurman’s erudition, while the Utrecht cathedral in the background alludes to the city where she spent most of her life.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle

  • Dimensions

    overall: 31 x 24.4 cm (12 3/16 x 9 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    2002.35.1

More About this Artwork

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Anna Maria van Schurman, 1657

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Clement de Jonghe [c. 1624-1677], Amsterdam; (his estate sale, Amsterdam, 15 February 1679 and days following).[1] Jan Six [1618-1700], Amsterdam; (his estate sale, by Jan Pietersz Zomer, Amsterdam, 6 April 1702, no. 111). Joan de Vries; (his sale, The Hague, 13 October 1738, no. 24).[2] Rev. John Fuller Russell [1814-1884], Eagle House, near Enfield, Middlesex, by 1854;[3] (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 April 1885, no. 139). Ralph Brocklebank [1840-1921], Haughton Hall, near Tarporley, Cheshire, by 1904;[4] (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1922, no. 91). Joseph Fuller Feder [d. 1944], New York; by inheritance to his wife, Edith Mosler Feder [d. 1960], New York; by inheritance to her grandson, Joseph F. McCrindle [1923–2008], New York; gift 2002 to NGA.
[1] Frans Laurentius, Clement de Jonghe (ca. 1624-1677): KunstverKoper in de Gouden Eeuw, Houten, 2010: 42, 160, 161.
[2] Gerard Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen…, The Hague, 1752: 561.
[3] Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols., London, 1854: 2:464.
[4] R. Radcliffe Carter, Pictures & Engravings at Haughton Hall, Tarporley, in the possession of Ralph Brocklebank, London, 1904: x, 34, no. 26.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1857

  • Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 522, as Portrait of a Female by Cornelis Janssens.

2009

  • Judith Leyster (1609-1660), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009, unnumbered brochure.

2012

  • Citizens of the Republic: Portraits from the Dutch Golden Age, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2012-2013, brochure no. 2, repro.

Bibliography

1752

  • Hoet, Gerard. Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen. 2 vols. The Hague, 1752: 1:559-561, no. 24.

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:464.

1897

  • Moes, Ernst Wilhelm. Iconographia Batava. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1897–1905: 2(1905):362, no. 8.

1904

  • Carter, R. Radcliffe. Pictures & Engravings at Haughton Hall Tarporley in the Possession of Ralph Brocklebank. London, 1904: x, 34, no. 26.

1959

  • Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The British School. London, 1959: 72 n. 3.

1963

  • Hall, H. van. Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars: repertorium. Amsterdam, 1963: 300, no. 11.

1976

  • Hoet, Gerard. Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen. 3 vols. Reprint of 1752 ed. with supplement by Pieter Terwesten, 1770. Soest, 1976: 1:559-561, no. 24.

1987

  • Stighelen, Katlijne van der. "Constantijn Huygens en Anna Maria van Schurman: veel werk, weinig weerwerk..." De Zeventiende Eeuw 3, no. 2 (1987): 143-144, pl. 2.

1991

  • Buijs, Hans, and Mària van Berge-Gerbaud. Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Collections flamandes et hollandaises des musées de province. Paris, 1991: 70, 72 n. 3.

1996

  • Baar, Mirjam de, et al., eds. Choosing the Better Part: Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678). International archives of the history of ideas 146. Translated by Lynne Richards. Dordrecht and Boston, 1996: pl. 10 (print after the painting).

2003

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. Facsimile edition of London 1854. London, 2003: 2:464.

2011

  • Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.

2012

  • Grasselli, Margaret M., and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds. The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2012: 5, 14, 19, repro. 184.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Nothing Gray about Her: Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen's grisaille of Anna Maria van Schurman." In Face book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish portraiture of the 16th-18th centuries. Edited by Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth. Leiden, 2012: 325-330, repro. 325.

  • Kuenstner, Molli. Citizens of the Republic: Portraits from the Dutch Golden Age. Exh. brochure. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2012: 4, 5, no. 2, repro.

2015

  • Hearn, Karen. Cornelius Johnson. London, 2015: 61.

Inscriptions

center left, below the cathedral, in the portrait medallion: Cornelius Ionson / Van Ceulen / fecit / 1657

Wikidata ID

Q20177442

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