Aert Schouman (Dordrecht 1710-1793 The Hague)
Aert Schouman (Dordrecht 1710-1793 The Hague)

A woman spinning, after Gerard ter Borch

Details
Aert Schouman (Dordrecht 1710-1793 The Hague)
A woman spinning, after Gerard ter Borch
inscribed 'GB' (recto), signed, dated and inscribed 'A. Schouman. fecit 1779 na G. terburg in Cabinet van docter tak te Lijden, en na zijns./doot.verkogt aen het fontijntje publiek voor/530 guldens. den 5 Sept. 1781.' (verso)
pencil, watercolor, heightened with white, gold and brown ink framing lines
8 x 6 5/8 in. (20.2 x 16.7 cm)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Christie's, Amsterdam, 25 November 1992, lot 647.
Literature
A.K. Wheelock, Jr., Gerard ter Borch, exh. cat., Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art and elsewhere, 2005, p. 96, under no. 20.

Lot Essay

The subject of a woman spinning thread would have been understood as a symbol of domestic virtue in the 17th Century.
Schouman's inscription on the verso of this drawing refers to Dr. Jan Tak (1729-1780) of Leiden, a well-known collector whom Schouman visited often. The Gerard ter Borch painting on which this drawing is based on was in Tak's collection and included in his posthumous sale on 5 September 1781 (lot 16). It is now in the Willem van de Voorn Foundation, on loan to the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (see Wheelock, op. cit., p. 95). Another watercolor by Schouman after Gabriel Metsu's painting A woman seated at a dressing table, was also in the collector of Dr. Tak. It is dated 1776 and has a similar inscription by the artist referencing its owner ('A. Schouman na Metsu 1776 in het Cabinet van de Heer Jan Tak. Medec[ij]ne Docter te Leiden'; Christie's, Amsterdam, 3 November 2004, lot 150).

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