An Old Woman Dozing over a Book

c. 1655

Nicolaes Maes

Artist, Dutch, 1634 - 1693

Shown from the waist up on the other side of a strawberry-red table, an elderly, pale-skinned woman sits facing us, sleeping with her head propped on her hand in this vertical painting. She is brightly lit from our upper left, which creates deep shadows across her face, and behind and around her. The woman rests her cheek against her closed left fist, to our right. That elbow is propped on a gold and amber-yellow cushion tucked into the corner where the table meets the wall to our right. Her brows are slightly furrowed over deep-set eyes. She has loose jowls, thin lips, and wrinkles line the corners of her eyes and her mouth. Almost lost in shadow, her other hand rests on the large book lying open before her. She wears a black coat draped over a parchment-white garment. Her hair is covered by a ginger-brown and black striped veil that hangs to her shoulders. Three iron-gray keys hang from a rail running across the wall next to her at head height. The wall is sage green and mustard yellow in the light, and the corners and left edge are swallowed in shadow. The artist signed the painting in capital letters on the right, just above the rail, “N. Maes.”

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Nicolaes Maes, one of the foremost portrait painters of the second half of the seventeenth century, began his career as a painter of religious subjects and genre scenes. These early works reflect the influence of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), with whom he studied in Amsterdam between 1646 and 1653. In numerous paintings Maes explored the theme of a dozing woman who shirks her responsibilities. Here, the signs of sloth are subtle: the household keys, indicating worldly duties, dangle idly from a nail in the wall, and the opened Bible remains unread, suggesting that she has closed her eyes to the word of God.

Many of the props Maes used in this work reappear in other paintings from this period, as does his elderly model. Her identity is unknown, but she may have been a relative. Perhaps Maes followed Rembrandt’s example and used his mother for his representations of older women in his moralizing images of the mid-1650s. These didactic works were made after Maes returned to Dordrecht, where he married the widow of a preacher in 1654. Dordrecht was a Calvinist stronghold, so paintings that stressed moral responsibility probably had a ready market.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 51

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 82.2 x 67 cm (32 3/8 x 26 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.63

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: An Old Woman Dozing over a Book, c. 1655

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

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Antoine Delacoux de Marivault [1771-1846], Paris; (his sale, Salle Desmarets by Le Brun and Jaluzot, Paris, 9-10 June 1806, 1st day, no. 29, probably bought in);[1] (sale, by Pérignon and Chariot, Paris, 28-29 March 1816, 1st day, no. 49, bought in); deposited 1817 with (Frederic Quilliet, Paris);[2] (Quilliet sale, by Henry and Jaluzot, Paris, 15-17 April 1818, 1st day, no. 188). possibly (sale, Edward Foster, London, 7 June 1833, no. 69).[3] (Anonymous sale, Worcester, 1856); Thomas Grove Smith [d. 1879], Rashwood House, Droitwich, Worcestershire; by inheritance to his son, Herbert George Smith [d. 1918], Apsey House, Batheaston, Somerset;[4] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London); sold 25 September 1919 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); sold 15 January 1920 to (John Levy Galleries, New York).[5] Nils B. Hersloff, East Orange, New Jersey;[6] consigned April 1933-May 1934 and January 1935-April 1936 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[7] purchased 16 April 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The early provenance of the painting, through 1833, was kindly provided by Burton B. Fredericksen in a letter to Arthur Wheelock, dated 18 December 2002, in NGA curatorial files. Marivault's collection was offered for sale en bloc in January 1806; concerning this exhibition/sale, and the June 1806 sale and confusion surrounding its dates, see also Burton B. Fredericksen and Benjamin Peronnet, eds., Répertoire des tableaux vendus en France au XIXe siècle, one volume in two parts, Los Angeles, 1998: pt. 1:32-33, 35-36, cats. 96 and 109. William W. Robinson, in a letter to Arthur Wheelock of 12 March 1996 (in NGA curatorial files), noted a sale record in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), The Hague, that gives the dates as 10-11 June 1809. However, the description of lot number 29 is identical to the description in the 1806 catalogue, so the 1809 date is likely in error. Frits Lugt (Répertoire des catalogues de ventes publiques, 4 vols., The Hague, 1938-1964: vol. 1) cross-references three sales to each other--Lugt numbers 6281, 7604, and 8017--that all likely refer to the 1806 sale, which is Lugt number 7119.
[2] Fredericksen and Peronnet 1998, pt. 1:32, cat. 96.
[3] As Fredericksen points out in his letter (see note 1), the paintings in this sale are described as having been "just imported from France," but the description is brief and the dimensions are not given, so the painting's identity is uncertain.
[4] The provenance from 1856 to 1919 comes from a three-page typewritten pamphlet concerning the work written by W. Roberts in 1919. It was probably produced for Sulley and Co., London, and is in the library of M. Knoedler & Co., New York (copy in NGA curatorial files).
[5] Stockbook no. 5563, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London. A handwritten note by Frits Lugt in a copy of the 1935 Knoedler exhibition catalogue that included the painting (now at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague) reads: "fraai, heb ick bij Agnew 1920 gemist."
[6] N.B. Hersloff, then resident in Pinehurst, North Carolina, wrote to Duveen Brothers, Inc. on 15 November 1930 to ask if the dealer would be interested in buying the painting. He was told, however, in letter of 20 November 1930, that the firm did not buy works by the artist. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 321, box 466, folder 2; copies in NGA curatorial files)
[7] On 7 April 1933 the picture was received by Knoedler, on consignment from "H. B. Hersloff, Compania De Trafico Y Formento" (no address given, transaction no. CA 513 in the stockbook). It was returned to the consigner on 8 May 1934, but returned again in January 1935 (transaction CA 768, again from "H.B. Hersloff"). However, the painting is listed in the 1935 Knoedler exhibition catalogue as having come from the collection of "Nils B. Hersloff, Esq.," rather than "H.B.," as was entered in the normally reliable Knoedler stockbooks. (The stockbook information was kindly provided by Nancy C. Little, librarian at M. Knoedler & Co., New York).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1900

  • Autumn Exhibition, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1900, no. 41.

1935

  • Exhibition of Twenty Masterpieces (1400-1800) in Aid of King George V's Jubilee Trust, M. Knoedler & Co., London, 1935, no. 10.

1993

  • Bilder vom alten Menschen in der niederländischen und deutschen Kunst 1550-1750, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, 1993-1994, no. 44, repro.

Bibliography

1900

  • Victoria Art Gallery. Autumn Exhibition. Exh. cat. Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1900: 9, no. 41.

1919

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. Die Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malerschulen. 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1919: 68.

1924

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Nicolaes Maes. Stuttgart, 1924: 72, no. 33, repro.

1935

  • M. Knoedler & Co. Jubilee year exhibition of masterpieces through four centuries (1400-1800) in aid of King George's Jubilee Trust. Exh. cat. M. Knoedler & Co., London, 1935: 16: no. 10.

  • "Old Masters that Are on Show in London, Notable Pictures to See." The Illustrated London News (22 June 1935): repro.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 118, no. 63.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Book of illustrations. 2nd ed. Washington, 1942: 63, repro. 28, 240.

1949

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 89, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 314, 339, repro.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 80.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 71, repro.

1974

  • Slive, Seymour. "Dutch School." In European paintings in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Edited by Louisa Dresser. 2 vols. Worcester, 1974: 1:112-114, ft. 3.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 208-209, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 286, no. 380, color repro.

1979

  • Sumowski, Werner. Drawings of the Rembrandt School. 10 vols. Edited and translated by Walter L. Strauss. New York, 1979–1992: 8:4066, 4084.

1983

  • Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau, 1983: 3:2021, 2022, 2094, no. 1368, color repro.

1984

  • Robinson, William W. "‘The sacrifice of Isaac’: an unpublished painting by Nicolaes Maes." The Burlington Magazine 136 (September 1984): 540 n. 6.

  • Sutton, Peter C. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Jane Iandola Watkins. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Royal Academy of Arts, London. Philadelphia, 1984: 241 n. 2.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 287, no. 374, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 240, repro.

1993

  • Berger, Ursel, and Jutta Desel. Bilder vom alten Menschen in der niederländischen und deutschen Kunst, 1550-1750. Exh. cat. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, 1993: 174-175, no. 44, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 160-164, color repro. 161.

  • Liedtke, Walter A. Rembrandt/not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: aspects of connoisseurship. Vol. 2, Paintings, drawings, and prints: art-historical perspectives. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995: 2:126-127, fig. 77.

2000

  • Krempel, León. Studien zu den datierten Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 9. Petersburg, 2000: no. 37, 361, fig. 27.

Inscriptions

upper right above keys: N. MAES

Wikidata ID

Q20177396

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