(Leiden 1612/13–1645 Amsterdam)
An old woman with a book,
oil on panel, 49.9 x 37.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
Sir Delves Broughton, Bart., Doddington Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire;
Schaeffer Galleries, New York;
by whom sold, Parke-Bernet, New York, 26 May 1943, lot 84, to Grafton Galleries;
Captain Harold Paikin, New York;
by whose estate, Parke-Bernet, New York, 23 January 1952, lot 66;
sold to Fred Maloof, Oxon Hill Manor, Maryland;
his sale, Silver Spring, Maryland, American Estate Auctions, 24, 25 and 26 September 1965, lot 1147 (all the above as by Gerrit Dou);
acquired by an American collector and thence by family descent until 2006

Literature:
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. VI, Landau/Pfalz, 1983, p. 3720, no. 2328, ill. p. 3927

The present picture is included in Werner Sumowski’s comprehensive catalogue of the work of the Rembrandt school (see literature). Sumowksi dates the present picture to c. 1630-31, when Isaac de Joudreville was among one of the first pupils in Rembrandt’s studio in Leiden (between 1629 and 1631), along with Gerrit Dou. Furthermore, he compares the picture to de Joudreville’s painting, A Young Man with a Coloured Scarf, at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (see Literature, vol. II, p. 1439, no. 940, illustrated), and A Laughing Man with a Golden Chain in Museum Bredius, The Hague (see literature, p. 1440, no. 941, illustrated).