Attributed to Gerard Dou (1613-1675)

A young Artist sketching a bronze Statue of Orpheus and Cerberus by Candlelight at a stone Casement draped with a Curtain

Details

Attributed to Gerard Dou (1613-1675)
A young Artist sketching a bronze Statue of Orpheus and Cerberus by Candlelight at a stone Casement draped with a Curtain
signed (?) with initials 'A:C:RV.' and bears signature 'GDou' [GD linked]
oil on panel
12 1/8 x 9¾in. (31 x 24.8cm.)

Provenance

Johann van Schuylenburch; sale, Zanten, The Hague, Sept. 20, 1735, lot 51 as Gerard Dou (310 florins).
Ewout van Dishoek; sale, The Hague, June 9, 1745, lot 34 as Gerard Dou (405 florins).
Johan van der Linden van Slingeland; (+) sale, Yver, Dordrecht, Aug. 22, 1785, lot 122 as Gerard Dou (4000 florins to Fouquet).
M. Dubois; sale, Lebrun, Paris, Dec. 20, 1785, lot 36 as Gerard Dou (7600 francs).
Pieter de Smeth van Alphen; sale, de Vries, Amsterdam, Aug. 1, 1810, lot 24 as Gerard Dou (2500 florins).
Henry Croese; sale, van der Schley, Amsterdam, Sept. 18, 1811, lot 20 as Gerard Dou (2500 florins to Muller).
Gerrit Muller; (+) sale, de Vries, Amsterdam, April 2, 1827, lot 20 as Gerard Dou (770 florins).
Possibly the Six van Winter collection.
Stadinski and Muller; sale, Winckelmann, Amsterdam, May 16-8, 1831, lot 26 as Gerard Dou.
Eugène Fischoff; sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 14, 1913, lot 52 as Gerard Dou (5000 francs).
with P. Rosenthal, Berlin, circa 1928 (accompanied by certificates from Max J. Friedlander and Willem von Bode, both as by Dou).
with Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam (Exposition de nouvellés acquisitions, Spring/Summer 1937, no. 8, illustrated as Gerard Dou) from whom purchased in 1937 by the father of the present owner.
Anon. Sale, Christie's, New York, June 12, 1981, lot 90 as Gerard Dou.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., I, 1829, p. 22, no. 65 as Gerard Dou.
W. Martin, Gerard Dou, 1901, no. 323a as Gerard Dou.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., I, 1907, pp. 419-20, no. 219 as Gerard Dou.

Lot Essay

A second painting by Dou of the same subject is in the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (see W. Martin, Gerard Dou, 1913, no. 147, illustrated). Willem L. van de Watering believes, on the basis of a photograph, that the present work may be an autograph work by Gerard Dou.

The bronze statue of Orpheus and Cerberus in the present composition is generally thought to be by Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621).