An artist in his studio, possibly a portrait of the artist

Though previously attributed to Gerrit Dou by Hans-Joachim Raupp (loc. cit.), this painting is instead by an as-yet unidentified artist in his circle. Images of painters sitting before their easel constitute a particular specialty of Leiden artists, a tradition inaugurated by Rembrandt’s Artist in his studio of about 1628 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Kleinert, op. cit., p. 169). Several elements in this painting suggest the artist’s intimate familiarity with early works by Rembrandt and Dou: the drawn head affixed to the column in the background recalls Dou’s Bust of a Negro (Niedersächsische Landesgalerie, Hannover); the drawing of the standing man in the open book in the background similarly derives either from Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in Oriental Clothing (Petit Palais, Paris) or, likelier, a copy by Rembrandt’s pupil, Isaac de Jouderville (The Leiden Collection, New York); and the still life including a shield and helmet at lower right is based on works such as Dou’s early Man writing at an easel (private collection).

A variant of this image, also portraying the artist seated before a painting depicting The Good Samaritan but in horizontal format, was formerly on the London art market (Baer, op. cit., no. C11, fig. iv).