Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Key Concepts
- 2 A Niche of One’s Own: Gerrit Dou’s Brand-Building Project
- 3 The Pleasure of Novelty: Gerard ter Borch’s Innovation
- 4 Invention through Repetition: Imitation and Emulation in the Work of Frans van Mieris
- Epilogue: On Signature Products, Knock-Offs, and Product Lines
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - A Niche of One’s Own: Gerrit Dou’s Brand-Building Project
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Key Concepts
- 2 A Niche of One’s Own: Gerrit Dou’s Brand-Building Project
- 3 The Pleasure of Novelty: Gerard ter Borch’s Innovation
- 4 Invention through Repetition: Imitation and Emulation in the Work of Frans van Mieris
- Epilogue: On Signature Products, Knock-Offs, and Product Lines
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 26 September 1665, the following advertisement appeared in the Haarlemsche Courant:
All gentlemen and liefhebbers, please note that in the house of Mons. Hannot, opposite the town hall in the town of Leiden, from 11 to 12 every day except Sundays, in the absence of unavoidable hindrances, twenty-nine pieces can be seen, most admirably painted and wonderfully executed by the artful and renowned Mr. Gerard Dou; asking all in particular that as they leave to not neglect to remember the great need of the poor, and to leave a liberal gift in view of the same, to which end a box shall hang in the said room, and if anyone has a liking for the art to please discuss the matter with the owner.
The focus of the exhibition was Gerrit Dou, one of the most revered Dutch artists in the 1660s. The owner of the paintings to be put on display was Johan de Bye, whose reputation as one of the great collectors of Dou's works was known even before this announcement. The French scholar and diplomat Balthasar de Monconys, for instance, wrote of seeing De Bye's vast collection of Dou's pictures when he traveled to Leiden in 1663. In 1665, however, De Bye rented a room in the house of a third party, Johannes Hannot (a painter of portraits and still life) specifically to showcase the paintings by Dou in his possession. De Bye's purpose for mounting a special exhibition in a dedicated space is unclear, although the encouragement to interested viewers to approach the owner has led a number of scholars to surmise that the event served a commercial purpose. Regardless of his intentions, this unique event can shed light on the collecting and display of art, as well as the status of the artist, in a major seventeenth-century Dutch town.
What does the announcement communicate about De Bye, who presumably initiated the project, to the readers of the Haarlemsche Courant? Perhaps most obviously, the collection testified to the owner's wealth. On 18 September, several days before the announcement appeared in the gazette, De Bye had a contract drawn up with Hannot to have the pictures shown in the voorcamer (“front room”) of the latter's house on Breestraat.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Creating Distinctions in Dutch Genre PaintingRepetition and Invention, pp. 53 - 92Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2017