In our October group email, we pose the Art Quiz question:
This small portrait, An Old Woman Singing, is by the Dutch artist Gerrit Dou (1613-1675). It comes from the collection given to Cheltenham in 1898 by its MP and Mayor, Baron de Ferrières, to establish an art gallery in the town. Dou is one of only three artists identified as a pupil of Rembrandt, and the Young Rembrandt exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford includes two paintings on which master and pupil are known to have worked together.
In which Dutch city was Gerrit Dou born?
a) Amsterdam b) Delft c) Gouda d) Leiden
Answer: d) Leiden.
This ancient university city was the birthplace of several of the most celebrated Dutch painters including Rembrandt, Jan Steen and (not least) Gerrit Dou.
For more details about the painting, click here.