Gerrit Dou, 'A Poulterer's Shop', about 1670

A Poulterer's Shop

Gerrit Dou

Room 15a

About the work

Overview

This is one of the best examples of Gerrit Dou’s brilliance at depicting different surfaces and textures, like the fraying cloth crumpled underneath a bucket, the smooth stone of the sill, the feathers in the duck’s wing and the pocked skin of its breast and neck.

Dou was one of the most successful artists in Leiden, and his accounts of everyday scenes like this – a young woman buying poultry and game – were particularly sought-after. As here, many were set in an architectural frame, an unusual device because even though the details and the figures are extremely realistic, a Leiden poultry seller would definitely not have displayed her produce in such a grand setting. It was obviously a device which proved popular with Dou’s own customers however, and it also allowed him to give his scenes a greater illusion of depth.

In-depth

This is one of the best examples of Gerrit Dou’s brilliance at depicting different surfaces and textures in an extraordinarily convincing way: the fraying cloth crumpled underneath the bucket, the smooth stone of the sill, the feathers in the duck’s wing and the pocked skin of its breast and neck.

Not only do they look almost photographically real in themselves, but Dou has demonstrated his mastery of reflection and distortion by mirroring them in the shiny curve of the pail. Many seventeenth-century Dutch painters were skilled at painting in this way, but few – if any – could match Dou, who was apprenticed to Rembrandt, but also studied the minute techniques of copper engraving and glass painting. He became one of the most successful artists in Leiden, and his accounts of everyday scenes like this – a young woman buying poultry and game – were particularly sought-after.

As here, many were set in an architectural frame. It is an unusual device: while the details and the interaction between the figures are extremely realistic, the architecture reminds us that this is not a real scene. A typical Leiden poultry seller might well have looked as we see her here, but she definitely wouldn't have displayed her produce in such a grand and formal setting. It was a device which proved popular with Dou’s own customers though, and it also allowed him to give a greater sense of depth to the painting. The caged chicken, the crumpled cloth and the dead birds protruding over the sill, and the poulterer reaching out with the hare all seem to come forward into our own space. The illusion is intensified by the dramatic shaft of light which highlights the objects and figures in the foreground. Meanwhile, the shop and the two figures inside recede into a deep, shadowy background.

It is quite a formulaic composition. Dou’s customers might have recognised the sculpted panel showing children playing with a goat. It is based on a seventeenth-century marble bas-relief and often appears in Dou’s work from 1651 and later. The old woman is also recognisable from several of his works from at least 1647 onwards. The style of this painting, however, suggests that it was made significantly later than this: there are comparisons, for example, with his Grocer’s Shop of 1672 (Royal Collection, London).

Some art historians – swayed by what they see as the exaggerated eagerness of the young woman – have argued that we should read a moral message into the scene, based on the fact that the Dutch word for bird (vogel) puns with a slang word for sex (vogelen), and that empty bird cages could symbolise the loss of chastity. Hares were also associated with lust. But it’s hard to make a convincing case for what such a message or lesson might be. It is more likely that if Dou were suggesting any double entendres, they were for comic, rather than moral, effect.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Poulterer's Shop
Artist: Gerrit Dou
Artist dates: 1613 - 1675
Date made: about 1670
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 58 × 46 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1871
Inventory number: NG825
Location: Room 15a
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: William Thomas Beckford

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt
Frame: 17th-century Dutch Frame

Provenance

In the collection of Willem Lormier in The Hague and one of the seventeen pictures sold by him on 27 June 1748 to the Marquis Voyer d’Argenson; apparently still in the latter’s collection c. 1754. Duc de Choiseul sale, Paris, 6 sqq. April 1772 (lot 14), bought by Brea (17,300 francs); Prince de Conti sale, Paris, 8 sqq. April 1777 (lot 322), bought by Langlier (20,000 francs); Duc de Ch[abot] sale, Paris, 10 sqq. December 1787 (lot 28), bought by Dulac (20,400 francs) for Dupré; Jean-François Coupry Dupré sale, Paris, 21 sqq. February 1811 (lot 14), bought in (26,000 francs). Purchased in Paris by William Beckford, December 1814; exhibited by him at the BI, 1818. In the catalogue of the W. Beckford, Fonthill Abbey, sale announced for 15 October 1822 (lot 111); the sale did not take place, Fonthill Abbey and its contents having been bought by Farquhar; in the Fonthill Abbey sale of 10 sqq. October 1823 (lot 248), bought by John Smith (1,270 gns). In the collection of (Sir) Robert Peel (Bart.) by 1829; purchased with the Peel collection, 1871.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1771

P.F. Basan, Recueil d'estampes gravées d'après les tableaux du Cabinet de Monseigneur le duc de Choiseul par les soins du Sr Basan, Paris 1771
1822

J. Christie, Magnificent Effects at Fonthill Abbey, London, 8 October 1822 - 17 October 1822
1824

P.G. Patmore, British Galleries of Art, London 1824
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1844

A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
1859

C. Redding, Memoirs of William Beckford, London 1859
1904

W. Armstrong, The Peel Collection and the Dutch School of Painting, London 1904
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1911

W. Martin, Gerard Dou, Paris 1911
1913

W. Martin, Gerard Dou, Klassiker der Kunst 24, Stuttgart 1913
1937

'Sir Robert Peel as Collector: Unpublished Documents', The Times, 1937
1957

B. Alexander (ed.), Life at Fonthill, 1807-1822, with Interludes in Paris and London from the Correspondence of William Beckford, London 1957
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1978

S. Jones, 'The Fonthill Abbey Pictures: Two Additions to the Hazlitt Canon', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XLI, 1978, pp. 278-96
1983

C. Brown, 'Rubens' Watering Place: An Examination of His Landscape Technique', Ringling Museum of Art Journal, 1983, pp. 130-49
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1993

E.J. Sluijter, De lof der schilderkunst: Over schilderijen van Gerrit Dou (1613-1675) en een traktaat van Philips Angel uit 1642, Hilversum 1993
1994

E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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Room 15a

Gerrit Dou, 'A Poulterer's Shop', about 1670

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Gerrit Dou