Gerrit Dou
Master of minute, polished Leiden fine painting
Gerrit Dou, also known as Gerard and Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe l’oeil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. He was a student of Rembrandt. Dou was born in Leiden, where his father was a manufacturer of stained-glass. He studied drawing under Bartholomeus Dolendo, and then trained in the stained-glass workshop of Pieter Couwenhorn. In February 1628, at the age of fourteen, his father sent him to study painting in the studio of Rembrandt (then aged about 21) who lived nearby. From Rembrandt, with whom he remained for about three years, he acquired his skill in colouring and in the more subtle effects of chiaroscuro, and his master’s style is reflected in several of his earlier pictures, notably a self-portrait at the age of 22, and in the Blind Tobit going to meet his Son. At a comparatively early point in his career, however, he developed a distinctive manner of his own which diverged considerably from Rembrandt’s, cultivating a minute and elaborate style of treatment. He is said to have spent five days in painting a hand, and his work was so fine that he found it necessary to manufacture his own brushes.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Jacob Toorenvliet Student
Influenced by
Artworks by this artist (38 total)
- The lace maker 1667
- Woman Tidying the Supper Table ca. 1655 - 1660
- A Hermit Praying 1670
- Old Woman Reading c. 1631 - c. 1632
- A Fisherman’s Wife 1653
- A Hermit 1664
- An Elderly Woman, Seated By A Window At Her Spinning Wheel, Eating Porridge
- Praying old woman 1630-1635
- Bust of a Bearded Man c. 1642-1645
- The Penitent Magdalen ca. 1660–65
- A Woman playing a Clavichord
- Man Smoking a Pipe c. 1650
- Girl Chopping Onions
- A Visit to the Doctor 1660 - 1665
- Astronomer by Candlelight late 1650s
- Portrait of a young girl 1650-1675
- The Penitent Magdalen ca. 1660-65
- The Young Mother 1658
- A cottage interior with an old woman (‘Rembrandt’s Mother’) delousing a boy’s hair
- A Young Woman 1640