The Artist’s Father, Douwe Jansz. de Vries van Arentsvelt

The painting acquired for the Stanisław August collection together with its pendant [cf. The Artist’s Mother, Marritge Jansdr. van Rosenburg], a portrait of the artist’s mother, came from the Johan Aegidiusz. van der Marck collection in Leiden. For the painting’s history and attributions in the archival sources and literature, see cat. no. 37, where the question of the sitter’s identity is also discussed.

The likeness of the artist’s father held by Gerard Dou (and being shown to the viewer), is the painter’s self-portrait made in c. 1650, now in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig ... and is very similar to the Łazienki painting. In the Braunschweig ‘portrait within a portrait’ the man is seated behind the table, his shoulders are turned en face and he is wearing a cap. The turn of the head, the facial features and flat ruff about the neck are, however, identical. There is no doubt that the same person is depicted in both the Brunswick ‘portrait within a portrait’ and the Łazienki painting. The commemorative nature of the Brunswick painting and the tradition of such kind of representations warrant its identification as a family portrait: therefore it shows the artist’s father—Douwe Jansz. de Vries van Arentsvelt. Born in c. 1584, died 1656, he was the owner of a glass workshop in which Gerard’s brother, Jan, also worked, and who is probably also depicted in the Brunswick painting (see cat. no. 37). Like its pendant, depicting Dou’s mother, the Łazienki painting is now defined as ‘ascribed to’ or ‘probably by’ Gerard Dou ... . [See D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 38, p. 163.]