Gerard Dou
Gerard Dou (also Gerard Douw or Gerrit Dou ; born April 7, 1613 in Leiden ; buried February 9, 1675 in Leiden) was a Dutch Baroque painter . Because of his passion for meticulous details and his perfect technique, he is considered the founder of Leiden fine painting, which was cultivated well into the 18th century .
Life
After an apprenticeship with his father Douwe Jansz, a glass painter, Dou went to Bartholomeus Dolendo (* around 1570, † 1626) in 1624 , then spent two years with the glass painter Pieter Clouwenhorn and finally spent three years with Rembrandt in his Leiden workshop Teaching. From 1632 he worked independently in Leiden. In 1648 he became a member of the Leiden Guild of Luke; he already enjoyed great fame during his lifetime.
Rembrandt's influence was initially great. Dou made portraits of him and his parents. From 1640 onwards, excellent genre pictures painted in small format are known by Dou. The scenes mostly take place in dark and narrow spaces. About 200 works by Dou are known. The most important works are now in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam , the Louvre in Paris and the National Gallery in London . The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden also has more than a dozen of his paintings, including B. the trompe-l'œil still life with candlestick .
Works by the artist were also traded on the art market. In 2001 the masterpiece The Dentist was called up at Van Ham Art Auctions in Cologne. The 38.8 × 26.6 cm wooden panel was exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1900 and auctioned off by the Berlin art dealer Paul Cassirer in 1923 . From 1929 the painting was in a private collection in the Middle Rhine region. At Van Ham, Der Zahnarzt achieved a result of 5.7 million DM in 2001, making it, according to the Handelsblatt on July 3, 2001, the “most expensive German auction picture”. Today the work is in the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas.
Gerard Dou had many students and successors. His most important and most loyal was Frans van Mieris .
literature
- Ludwig Lemcke: Dou, Gerhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 366 f.
Web links
- Gerard Dou at Google Arts & Culture
- Gerrit Dou in VAN HAM Lexicon of Art. VAN HAM Art Publications, Cologne.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dou, Gerard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Douw, Gerard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch Baroque painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 7, 1613 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Suffer |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 9, 1675 |
| Place of death | Suffer |