A Young Woman seated at a Virginal
Catalogue entry
JOHANNES VERMEER, 1632–1675
2568 A Young Woman seated at a Virginal
, 1991
Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).
Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman seated at a Virginal (No. 2568) © The National Gallery, London
In the background hangs a painting by Dirck van Baburen of a man offering money to a young woman playing a lute, while an old woman stands by them pointing to the palm of her hand. On the inner side of the cover of the virginal is painted a landscape. In the left foreground stands a viola da gamba; part of a tapestry can be seen above it. There is a skirting of single‐figure blue and white Delft tiles.
Signed on the wall, behind the woman’s head: IVMeer (or IMeer; the capitals are in monogram).
Signatures: Vermeer (No. 2568) © The National Gallery, London
Oil on canvas, 51.5 × 45.5 cm (20¼ × 17¹⁵⁄₁₆).
Cleaned in 1965. There is some wearing in the wall to the right and some shadows are slightly worn.
The painting was severely damaged during an attack in 1968; an approximately circular cut runs the length of the face through the nose and to the right of the head. It was repaired and restored.
Discussion
Baburen’s painting appears also in the background of Vermeer’s Concert in the Gardner Museum, Boston.1 The original is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Fig. 115), signed and dated 1622,2 and there is an old copy in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.3
Dirck van Baburen, The Procuress. Canvas, 101 x 108.5 cm. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
, M. Theresa B. Hopkins Fund (50.2721)
. (See Vermeer No. 2568.)
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
© 2024 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Baburen’s composition depicts a procuress and her clients.4 Whether by the inclusion of the Baburen within his painting Vermeer intended to suggest that the young girl in the foreground was a prostitute or represented mercenary love or infidelity is impossible to determine. It is, however, difficult to believe that such a relationship between background and foreground was intended in the Gardner Museum Concert where Baburen’s The Procuress reappears. The present writer believes that, as in No. 1383, Vermeer is simply alluding in a non‐specific manner to the traditional association of music with love.5
MacLaren believed No. 2568 to be a little later in date than No. 1383 which he dated c. 1670. Blankert6 dates it to 1674–5 on stylistic grounds. The present writer considers [page 1.469]that such close dating of Vermeer’s work cannot be justified and that Nos. 2568 and 1383 are both of his late style and can therefore both be dated c. 1670.
It has been suggested7 that the composition was inspired by Gerrit Dou’s painting of the same subject in the Dulwich Gallery, which was perhaps painted by 1665.8 Though the components are the same the design is very different and it is hardly necessary to presume any connection or even common origin.
PROVENANCE: No. 2568 was perhaps in the collection of Diego Duarte, Antwerp, 1682, or in an Anon. sale [Jacobus Abrahamsz. Dissius of Delft?], Amsterdam, 16 May 1696 (lot 37), or in an Anon. sale, Amsterdam, 11 July 1714 (lot 12), but the descriptions of these pictures would also fit No. 1383 above. It was in the collection of Graf von Schönborn in Pommersfelden, near Bamberg, allegedly by 1746;9 Pommersfelden Gallery sale, Paris, 17 sqq. May 1867 (lot 78), bought by W. Bürger (pseudonym for Etienne‐Joseph‐Theophile Thore) 2,000 francs. Thore died in 1869 and the picture passed with the greater part of his collection to the Lacroix family, Paris;10 ‘Thore‐Bürger’ sale, Paris, 5 December 1892 (lot 3211), bought by Charles Sedelmeyer (25,000 francs) and sold by him to Lawrie & Co., London, in February 1893.12 Lent by T. Humphry Ward to the RA in 1894. In the collection of George Salting, London, by 1900, when it was exhibited at the BFAC ; Salting Bequest, 1910.
EXHIBITIONS: RA 1894 , No. 93; BFAC 1900 , No. 15; London 1976, No. 117.
REFERENCES:
General: HdG No. 25; Blankert No. 31.
In text:
1. Blankert No. 17. (Back to text.)
2. Canvas, 101 × 108.5 cm. Inv. no. 50.2721. See ex. cat. Philadelphia/Berlin/London, 1984, No. 1. (Back to text.)
3. Rijksmuseum 1976 catalogue, No. C612. (Back to text.)
4. Similar scenes were apparently sometimes intended to represent the Prodigal Son, e.g. Baburen’s picture of 1623 in Mainz, but see ex. cat. Philadelphia/Berlin/London, 1984, No. 1. (Back to text.)
5. See above, under No. 1383, for more detailed arguments and references. (Back to text.)
7. See K. Bostrom in Kunsthistorische Mededeelingen, 1949, p. 24. (Back to text.)
8. HdG No. 132. A picture of this description by Dou was mentioned in September 1665 (W. Martin, G. Dou, 1901, pp. 74 and 172). (Back to text.)
9. According to the Pommersfelden sale catalogue (1867) it is in the Pommersfelden catalogue of 1746. The present writer has not been able to consult this. The picture is not in the Verzeichniss der Schildereyen in der Gallerie des hochgräflichen Schönbornischen Schlosses zu Pommersfelden, Ansbach [1774], nor among the paintings mentioned in J. G. Meusel’s Museum für Künstler und für Kunstliefhaber, vol. 2, 1788, pp. 3–39, nor in J. Heller, Die gräflich Gemäldesammlung zu Schloss Weissenstein in Pommersfelden, 1845. It is No. 60 of the 1857 Pommersfelden catalogue; see also G. Parthey, Deutscher Bildersaal, vol. 2, 1864, p. 98. (Back to text.)
10. See OH , vol. 55, 1938, p. 140. (Back to text.)
11. Reproduced in error as lot 30. (Back to text.)
12. According to a MS note in the copy of Illustrated Catalogue of 300 Paintings … which have at various times formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery, 1898 (No. 85) belonging to the RKD ; the annotations in this were transcribed from Sedelmeyer’s own copy. (Back to text.)
Abbreviations
- OH
- Oud Holland, Amsterdam, 1883—1972, The Hague, 1973–
3 Other Abbreviations
- BFAC
- Burlington Fine Arts Club
- RA
- Royal Academy of Arts, London; Royal Academician
- RKD
- The Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), The Hague
List of archive references cited
- The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie: Illustrated Catalogue of 300 Paintings … which have at various times formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery, 1898, with annotations transcribed from Sedelmeyer’s own copy
List of references cited
- Blankert 1983
- Blankert, A., Ferdinand Bol: Rembrandt’s Pupil, Doornspijk 1982
- Bostrom 1949
- Bostrom, K., in Kunsthistorische Mededeelingen, 1949
- Davies 1959
- Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
- Davies and Gould 1970
- Davies, Martin, revised by Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc., London 1970
- Heller 1845
- Heller, J., Die gräflich Gemäldesammlung zu Schloss Weissenstein in Pommersfelden, 1845
- Hofstede de Groot 1907–28
- Hofstede de Groot, C., Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols (vols 9 and 10 are in German), London, Stuttgart and Paris 1907–28
- Martin 1901
- Martin, W., G. Dou, 1901
- Meusel 1788
- Meusel, J. G., Museum für Künstler und für Kunstliefhaber, 1788, 2
- Parthey 1864
- Parthey, G., Deutscher Bildersaal, 1864, 2
- Pommersfelden 1774
- Verzeichniss der Schildereyen in der Gallerie des hochgräflichen Schönbornischen Schlosses zu Pommersfelden, Ansbach 1774
- Pommersfelden 1857
- Katalog der gräflich von Schönborn'schen Bilder-Gallerie zu Pommersfelden, 1857
List of exhibitions cited
- Amsterdam 1976
- Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tot Lering en Vermaak: Betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 1976
- London, Royal Academy 1894
- London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1894
- London 1900
- London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1900
- London, National Gallery, 1976
- London, National Gallery, Art in Seventeenth–Century Holland, 1976
- Philadelphia, Berlin and London 1984
- Philadelphia, Museum of Art; Berlin‐Dahlem, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussicher Kulturbesitz; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Masters of Seventeenth‐Century Dutch Genre Painting, 1984
Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue
SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.
ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.
INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.
MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.
RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.
BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.
REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.
LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.
ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.
[page 1.xiv]VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ‘ op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).
CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.
CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.
CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.
PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue
entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’
exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated
,
.
VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.
CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.
Explanatory note
This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.
The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.
At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.
About this version
Version 1, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 14/10/2024 and database__16.xml dated 16/10/2024 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 14/10/2024. Structural mark-up applied to skeleton document in full; document updated to use external database of archival and bibliographic references; entries for NG6483, NG6458, NG830, NG4503, NG835, NG6444, NG212, NG54, NG221, NG672, NG1675, NG6350, NG990, NG2531, NG6442, NG871, NG1383, NG2568 and NG6522 proofread and prepared for publication; entries for NG1383, NG2568, NG54, NG5417, NG6458, NG6522, NG672 and NG835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.
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- MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 2568 A Young Woman seated at a Virginal. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2024. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/087B-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 22 December 2024).
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- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 2568 A Young Woman seated at a Virginal (National Gallery, 1991; online version 1, 2024) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/087B-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 22 December 2024]