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Young Woman Feeding a Parrot

Frans van Mieris (Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)
date
1663
medium
oil on panel
dimensions
22.4 x 17.7 cm
signed information

formerly signed and dated upper left: “F van Mieris fect Anno 1663”

inventory number
FM-112
Print

Buvelot, Quentin. “Young Woman Feeding a Parrot” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 4th ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Elizabeth Nogrady with Caroline Van Cauwenberge. New York, 2023–. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/woman-feeding-a-parrot/ (accessed April 19, 2024).

A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs. Click here to see the archived version(s) of this entry.

Frans van Mieris’s fame derives from his interior genre scenes depicting the daily affairs of wealthy Dutch citizens. Many of these paintings consist of two people interacting with each other in some idle fashion, but, as in this stunning painting, he also portrayed single figures relaxing within their domestic spheres. Here, within this darkened room, a richly dressed young woman with a fashionable hairstyle has just interrupted her needlework—a needle cushion is on her lap and a thimble is on one of her fingers—to feed the tame gray parrot sitting on one of the perches of a fine wooden stand.

Parrots were kept as pets in the seventeenth century, and Van Mieris depicted them on other occasions in his genre scenes. He may have painted this exotic bird, a Psittacus eritachus, for no other reason than to emphasize the luxurious surroundings. Notably, though, in images of the Virgin Mary and in marriage portraits, parrots often alluded to virtuousness or marital chastity. The parrot has also been interpreted as a symbol of eloquence and eagerness to learn, because the brightly colored bird can be tamed and taught to mimic speech. This, in any case, is the creature’s apparent role in a print in Jacob Cats’s Houwelyck (Marriage) from 1625, in which a woman represents “Leer-sucht” (eagerness to learn) with an embroidery frame and a squawking parrot on her hand (). The needlework of the woman in Van Mieris’s painting, which can be construed as an allusion to industry and virtue, similarly underscores the parrot’s symbolic meaning. The bird probably denotes the good upbringing of the woman, who bears a striking resemblance to the painter’s wife, Cunera van der Cock (see FM-107). A similar interpretation may be applied to other works that include this motif, such as the painting by Gabriel Metsu discussed below, in which a woman is shown still working on her needlework with the parrot perched on top of a cage.

This well-preserved masterpiece shows the artist’s marvelous technique to great advantage, for in this smoothly executed and precise image Van Mieris achieved a perfect rendering of textures. One is almost inclined to touch the painting and feel the fabric of the woman’s expensive clothes made of shimmering satin, velvet and fur. The sheen of light on the red velvet is handled as sharp white lines and veils of white. Van Mieris’s small scenes were not intended to be viewed from a distance, but even up close, the paint of the woman’s face is so finely blended that the artist’s brushstrokes remain invisible to the eye. In order to produce such a refined painting, Van Mieris must have applied layer after layer, in both the underpainting and in the final paint.

The painting was formerly signed in full and dated “1663,” but the signature and date disappeared during a cleaning in 2009, a not uncommon phenomenon with Van Mieris’s paintings. An unsigned work in London (), painted on a copperplate and of slightly lesser quality, has traditionally been regarded as an autograph replica of this panel painting. After the two works were shown side by side in an exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2010, however, subtle differences were noted in the way textures of materials were rendered, which seems to indicate that the London version was made by another painter working in Van Mieris’s studio. Little is known about how his studio was actually organized, so even the very question of whether Van Mieris made autograph replicas remains unresolved.

The London painting and more than two dozen copies made after Young Woman Feeding a Parrot attest to the great popularity of this small masterpiece. The composition must also have made a great impact on fellow painters. Van Mieris’s famous teacher Gerrit Dou (1613–75), for example, depicted the subject of a woman with a parrot probably only after his pupil had finished the present painting (see GD-105). Van Mieris’s paintings also inspired many of his contemporaries, including Johannes Vermeer (1632–75) and Gabriel Metsu (1629–67). The latter artist’s Woman Sewing, with a Parrot () is so similar to Young Woman Feeding a Parrot that it is very likely that Metsu tried to emulate Van Mieris’s work even as he translated Van Mieris’s painting technique into his own visual vocabulary.

Young Woman Feeding a Parrot was formerly one of the highlights of the paintings collection of the Bavarian Electors. It had probably been acquired by Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria (1662–1726). As of 1836, it was exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the paintings by Van Mieris and other fijnschilders such as Gerrit Dou gradually fell from favor. Ironically, this rejection of their work was based on the same qualities that had attracted such admiration in the beginning, namely, their refined brushstrokes. In the nineteenth century, the view had gradually taken hold that a painter’s work must display his distinctive hand. The precise imitation of reality was seen less and less as an artistic virtue; on the contrary, it was considered a reprehensible “trick,” certainly after the advent of photography. With this shift, art was viewed and valued increasingly in terms of expression.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and Frans Hals (1582/83–1666) became Dutch national symbols after their “rediscovery” by the French art critic Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (1807–69), who published under the pseudonym Willem Bürger. Their loosely painted works formed a major source of inspiration for impressionists and others, whereas the work of the fijnschilders lost its influence. In the 1920s and 1930s this reversal in appreciation eventually led some German museums to deaccession numerous works by the fijnschilders, including Young Woman Feeding a Parrot, which was sold in 1936. After World War II the painting entered the collection of Charles Dunlap of Philadelphia. When his widow sold the work at auction in 1975, the painting became part of the collection of Lord Harold Samuel (1912–87), who eventually bequeathed most of his collection to the City of London to be placed in Mansion House. Only a few paintings, including the present one, were not part of this bequest. In December 2008, Van Mieris’s masterpiece was sold at a public auction, and shortly thereafter it was acquired for the Leiden Collection.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017
Endnotes

  1. An earlier, more condensed version of this text was published by the author in Sandrina Bandera, Walter Liedtke, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. eds., Johannes Vermeer: Il secolo d’oro dell’arte olandese (Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale) (Rome, 2012), 170–71, no. 32.

  2. Barely visible in the background at left is a bed with curtains and on the right an open door.

  3. See, for example, Frans van Mieris the Elder, The Duet, 1658, panel, 31.5 x 24.6 cm, Staatliches Museum, Schwerin, inv. no. G 82. See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 22; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 17.

  4. This African species was identified by Nancy J. Clum, ornithology curator, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York; see Joseph M. Forshaw, Parrots of the World: An Identification Guide (Princeton, 2006), 89 and pl. 66 (with thanks to Dominique Surh of The Leiden Collection for supplying this reference).

  5. See Eddy de Jongh in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 50.

  6. Wayne E. Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Cambridge, 1993), 20–21, fig. 7.

  7. This resemblance has been noted in earlier literature on the painting; see the remarks in Otto Naumann, “Frans van Mieris as a Draughtsman,” Master Drawings 16, no. 1 (1978): 25, in no. 2. See also Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 163.

  8. The technique of Van Mieris’s Young Woman Feeding a Parrot is discussed extensively by E. Melanie Gifford, “Fine Painting and Eloquent Imprecision: Gabriel Metsu’s Painting Technique,” in Gabriel Metsu, ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2010), 176–77.

  9. For vanishing signatures in original Van Mieris paintings, see Otto Naumann Ltd., Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master Paintings (Exh. cat. New York, Otto Naumann, Ltd.) (Turin, 1995), 121 n. 4.

  10. See Neil MacLaren, The Dutch School 1600–1900, National Gallery Catalogues, rev. ed., 2 vols. (London, 1991), 1:262–64; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: 65–66, no. 54-II (with literature references); Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 163, with the paintings reproduced next to each other, full page, on 164–65.

  11. Marjorie Wieseman, “A Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot,” in Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes, and Discoveries (Exh. website, National Gallery, London, 2010).

  12. Other alleged replicas have lost their autograph status since the publication of the catalogue accompanying the monographic show devoted to Van Mieris in 2005–6 in The Hague and Washington D.C. See Quentin Buvelot and Otto Naumann in Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 233, no. 20-II, 235, no. 71-II, both as after Frans van Mieris the Elder.

  13. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:66–69.

  14. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:64, 67–68. Contemporaries of Van Mieris painted comparable scenes. Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (1640–91), for example, made a small painting of a young woman feeding a parrot (panel, 15.5 x 11.5 cm, signed; formerly in the Rothschild collection, later sold in Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1975, no. 67; see Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 5: no. 111; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. [Doornspijk, 1981], 1: fig. 87, repr. in mirror image). Michiel van Musscher (1645–1705) made a larger painting with a woman feeding her parrot, formerly in the famous Moltke collection (panel, 41 x 36 cm; signed at the back; sale Sotheby’s, New York, 16 May 1996, no. 35, repr.). Ary de Vois (1630/35–80) painted the same subject, however this time with a woman feeding a parrot in a landscape (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-458; see Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, eds. Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 [Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal] [Zwolle, 1988], 253–55, no. 90).

  15. Private collection, United States; see Wilhelm Martin, Gerard Dou: Des Meisters Gemälde (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), fig. 111; Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 375 n. 114.

  16. Wayne E. Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Cambridge, 1993), 24; Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 2012), 110; E. Melanie Gifford, “Fine Painting and Eloquent Imprecision: Gabriel Metsu’s Painting Technique” in Gabriel Metsu, ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2010), 176–77 and figs. 138, 140.

  17. With thanks to Dr. Marcus Dekiert, former curator of Dutch and German baroque painting at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, who assisted most generously with the reconstruction of the data given in the provenance section.

  18. See Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 12–13.

  19. Exceptions confirm this rule; see Mona Hadler, “Manet’s Woman with a Parrot,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal 7 (1973): 118–19 and fig. 3.

  20. For the Samuel collection, see Peter C. Sutton, Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth-Century Paintings: The Harold Samuel Collection (Cambridge, 1992).

  21. Peter C. Sutton, Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth-Century Paintings: The Harold Samuel Collection (Cambridge, 1992), 8.

Iconclass Terms
  • The Collection of the Bavarian Electors, Schloss Schleißheim, Oberschleißheim, probably acquired by Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria (1662–1726); by descent to Charles VII Albert (1697–1745); by descent to the Bavarian Electoral and Royal Collection (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen) in the following locations: Schloss Schleißheim, 1748–1775; Hofgartengalerie, Munich, by 1783; Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1836–1923; Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Speyer, 1923–1936 [to D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam].
  • [D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam, 19 August 1936.]
  • Mr. and Mrs. David Birnbaum, New York, by 1942.
  • Mr. Charles E. Dunlap (1889–1966), Philadelphia, probably by 1945; by descent to Mrs. Charles Dunlap, New York (her sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 3 December 1975, no. 304 [through Edward Speelman to Lord Harold Samuel for $155,000]).
  • Lord Harold Samuel (1912–87), Wych Cross Place, Sussex; by descent to Lady Samuel of Wych Cross (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3 December 2008, no. 25 [to Johnny Van Haeften, Ltd.]).
  • [Johnny Van Haeften, Ltd., London.]
  • From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.
Provenance Endnotes

  1. Mr. and Mrs. Birnbaum later changed their name to Bingham.

  • New York, Duveen Galleries, “Paintings by the Great Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century:  Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Queen Wilhelmina Fund and the American Women’s Voluntary Services,” 8 October–7 November 1942, no. 34 [lent by Mr. and Mrs. David Birnbaum].
  • Montreal, Art Association of Montreal, “Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings:  Five Centuries of Dutch Art,” 9 March–9 April 1944, no. 85 [lent by Mr. and Mrs. David Birnbaum].
  • New York, M. Knoedler & Co., “Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century,” 5–24 February 1945, no. 9 [lent by Mr. and Mrs. David Birnbaum].
  • London, National Gallery, “Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes, and Discoveries,” 30 June–12 September 2010 [lent by the present owner].
  • New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, September 2009–June 2010 [lent by the present owner].
  • Washington, National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, December 2010 – December 2011 [lent by the present owner].
  • Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, “Vermeer: Il secolo d’oro dell’arte olandese,” 20 September 2012–13 January 2013, no. 32 [lent by the present owner].
  • Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, April 2013–April 2016 [lent by the present owner].
  • Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry,” 20 February–22 May 2017; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 17 June – 17 September 2017; Washington, National Gallery of Art, 22 October – 21 January 2018, no. 50 [lent by the present owner]
  • Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March–22 July 2018, no. 35 [lent by the present owner].
  • St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019, no. 35 [lent by the present owner].
  • Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019, no. 63[lent by the present owner].
  • Inventories of Schloss Schleißheim. Schleißheim, 1748 and 1775, no. 677.
  • Die Bildergallerie in München. Munich, 1787, no. 628.
  • Von Mannlich, Christian. Beschreibung der Churpfalzbaierischen Gemälde-Sammlungen. Munich, 1805, 2: 266, no. 1087.
  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. London, 1829, 1: 70, in no. 29.
  • Von Dillis, Georg. Verzeichnis der Gemälde in der königlichen Pinakothek zu München.  Munich, 1838, 202, no. 188.
  • Nagler, Georg Kasper. Neues allgemeines Küstler-Lexikon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Formschneider, Lithographen, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc. Munich, 1840, 9: 266.
  • Siret, Adolphe. Dictionnaire historique des Peintres de toutes les écoles. Brussels, 1848, 127.
  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. London 1854. 2: 8.
  • Holloway, E. The Celebrated Galleries of Munich, Being a Selection from The Royal Collections of the Pinakothek and at Schleissheim, and from the Leuchtenberg Gallery, with an Historic Account of the School of Art. New York, 1855–67, 4.
  • Blanc, Charles. Histoires des peintres de toutes les écoles: Ecole hollandaise. Paris, 1861, 2: 21.
  • Parthey, Gustav. Deutscher Bildersaal: Verzeichnis der in Deutschland vorhandenen Oelbilder verstorbener Maler aller Schulen. Berlin, 1863, 3: 129, nos. 38 and 39.
  • Marggraff, Rodolphe. Catalogue des tableaux de l’ancienne Pinacothèque Royale à Munich.  Munich, 1866, 206, no. 417.
  • Crowe, Joseph Arthur. The Handbook of Painting: The German, Flemish and Dutch Schools, based on the Handbook of Kugler. London, 1874, 2: 409.
  • Lemcke, Carl. “Frans van Mieris.” In Kunst und Künstler des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. Biographien und charakteristiken unter mitwirkung von fachgenossen herausgegeben von Dr. R. Dohme. Kunst und Kunstler Deutschlands und er Niederlände bis um die Mitte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Edited by Robert Dohme, 2: 23. Leipizig, 1878.
  • Gower, Robert. The Figure Painters of Holland. London, 1880, 113, 114.
  • Katalog der Gemälde-Sammlung der Kgl. Älteren Pinakothek in München. Mit einer historischen Einleitung von Dr. Franz von Reber.  Munich, 1884, 88, no. 414 (reprinted in 1888, 1891, 1898, 1901, 1904, 1908, 1911, 1913).
  • Champlin, John Denison, and Charles C. Perkins, eds. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. New York, 1887, 3: 265.
  • Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon:Auf Grund Archivalischer Forschungen Bearbeitet. Vienna, 1910, 2: 165.
  • Katalog der Älteren Pinakothek zu München: Amtliche Ausgabe. Munich, 1920, 96, no. 533  (reprinted in 1922, 1925, and 1928).
  • Graeff, Walter, ed. Katalog der Staatsgemäldesammlung in Speyer: Amtliche Ausgabe. Munich, 1927, 58, no. 533.
  • Williamson, George C., ed. Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. London, 1927, 3: 337.
  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. Esslingen, 1928, 10: 55, no. 213.
  • Stechow, Wolfgang. “Frans van Mieris.”  In Allgemeine Lexikon der bildenden Künstler Antike bis zur Gegenwar. Edited by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, 24: 540. Leipzig, 1930.
  • Hourticq, Louis. Hollande en Histoire Générale de l’Art. Paris, 1932, 307.
  • Juynboll, Wilhelm R. “Frans van Mieris.” Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, 14 April 1935: 2.
  • McCall, George Henry, ed. Paintings by the Great Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century:  Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Queen Wilhelmina Fund and the American Women’s Voluntary Services. Exh. cat. New York, Duveen Galleries. New York, 1942, 126, no. 34.
  • Valentiner, Willem R., ed. Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings: Five Centuries of Dutch Art.  Exh. cat. Montreal, Art Association of Montreal. Montreal, 1944, no. 85.
  • Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat. New York, M. Knoedler & Co. New York, 1945, no. 9.
  • Wilenski, Reginald Howard. Dutch Painting. New York, 1955, 29.
  • MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues. The Dutch School. London, 1960, 1: 249.
  • Plietzsch, Eduard. Holländische und flämische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1960, 52.
  • Böttger, Peter. Die Alte Pinakothek in München. Mit einem Anhang: Abdruck des frühesten Gemäldeverzeichnisses der Pinakothek aus dem Jahre 1838 von Georg von Dillis.  Nach den heutigen Invenarnummern identifiziert von Gisela Scheffer. Munich, 1972, 562.
  • Hadler, Mona. “Manet’s Woman with a Parrot.” Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal 7 (1973): 119, no. 3.
  • Robinson, Franklin W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age.  New York, 1974, 49, fig 121a.
  • Naumann, Otto. “Frans van Mieris as a Draughtsman.” Master Drawings 16 (1978): 20n22, 25.
  • Naumann, Otto. “Van Mieris, riant betaald schilder.” Tableau 3 (1981): 655, fig. 9.
  • Naumann, Otto.  Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. Doornspijk, 1981, 1: 17, 63, 64, 66–68, 124; 2: 64–69, no. 54-I.
  • White, Christopher. The Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen. Cambridge, 1982, 79.
  • Moiso-Diekamp, Cornelia. Das Pendant in der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts.  Frankfurt am Main, 1987, 375–76, no. B3.
  • Sluijter, Eric Jan, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Nieuwenhuizen, eds. Leidse Fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge, 1630–1760.  Exh cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 1988, 66, 253, 255n3, and fig. 49.
  • MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. The Dutch School 1600–1900. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991, 1: 262, 263n1; 2: fig. 60.
  • Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master Paintings. Exh cat. New York, Otto Naumann, Ltd. New York, 1995, 121n4.
  • Senenko, Maria, ed. Holland XVIII–XIX Centuries, Collection of Paintings. Exh. cat. Moscow, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Moscow, 2000, 231.
  • Bøgh Røberg, Lene, ed. Twee Gouden Eeuwen: Schilderkunst uit Nederland en Denemarken.  Exh. cat. Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Zwolle, 2001, 176.
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  • Wieseman, Marjorie. “A Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot.” In Close Examination:  Fakes, Mistakes, and Discoveries. Exh. website, National Gallery. London, 2010. http://nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/research/a-woman-in-a-red-jacket-feeding-a-parrot.
  • Gifford, E. Melanie. “Fine Painting and Eloquent Imprecision: Gabriel Metsu’s Painting Technique.” In Gabriel Metsu. Edited by Adriaan Waiboer, 176–77 and figs. 138, 140. Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington, National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2010.
  • Schavemaker, Eddy. Eglon van der Neer (1635/36–1703): His Life and Work. Doornspijk, 2010, 49n8, 53n20.
  • Buvelot, Quentin. “Donna che dà mangiare a un pappagallo” In Johannes Vermeer: Il secolo d’oro dell’arte olandese. Edited by Sandrina Bandera, Walter Liedtke, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 170–71, no. 32.  Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale. Rome, 2012.
  • Waiboer, Adriaan. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, 2012, 110 and fig. 39.
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  • Gifford, E. Melanie and Lisha Deming Glinsman. “Style collectif et manière personelle: Matériaux et techniques dans la peinture de genre.” In Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 134–36, fig, 62. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National Gallery of Art. Paris, 2017.
  • Waiboer, Adriaan. “Les Perroquets.” In Vermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 317, 321, no. 50. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National Gallery of Art. Paris, 2017.
  • Gifford, E. Melanie and Lisha Deming Glinsman. “Collective Style and Personal Manner: Materials and Techniques of High-Life Genre Painting.” In Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 64–65, 79, fig. 42C. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2017.
  • Waiboer, Adriaan. “Birds of a Feather.”  In Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry. Edited by Adriaan E. Waiboer, Blaise Ducos, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 184, 186–87, 247, cat. 13.2. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Washington, National Gallery of Art. New Haven, 2017.
  • Ho, Angela K. Creating Distinctions in Dutch Genre Painting. Amsterdam, 2017, 164, fig. 55.
  • Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of    Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina   Lyubimova. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina, 17, 24, 25, fig. 8; 32. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
  • McCarthy, Alexa. “Young Woman Feeding a Parrot.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina, 136–37; 238, no. 35. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
  • Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 26, 30. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
  • Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 54, 141–42, no. 63. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
  • Buvelot, Quentin. “Prototypes and Replicas in the World of Vrel and His Contemporaries.” In Jacobus Vrel: Searching for Clues to an Enigmatic Artist. Edited by Quentin Buvelot, Bernd Ebert, and Cécile Tainturier, 94–95, fig. 3. Exh. cat., Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen; Paris, Fondation Custodia; The Hague, Mauritshuis. Munich, 2021.`

The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular-shaped oak, has one bevel along the upper edge. Shims toned black have been glued to all four sides, and the upper and lower shims have been reinforced with brads. A red wax collection seal with no recognizable impression, ten red wax dots, and six paper labels are located along the panel reverse, but there are no import stamps, inscriptions or panel maker’s marks.

A white-colored ground of medium thickness has been evenly applied. The paint has been applied smoothly in thin layers with low brushmarking of transparent glazing, with lighter more opaque tones and highlights ranging from creamy opaque lines to thin light scumbles.

The painting is unsigned and undated; however, an engraving by Ignaz Sebastian Klauber from 1789 indicates the painting was formerly signed and dated “F.van Mieris fect Anno 1663”.

The painting was not examined with infrared. The X-radiograph reveals a compositional change in the lower left corner where a draped cloth-like form was previously located where the parrot’s post now stands.

The painting was cleaned and restored in 2009 and remains in a good state of preservation despite areas of thinness through the brown background, parrot, and figure’s ribbon and hair.

Technical Summary Endnotes

  1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and panel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for dendrochronology but would require removal of two shims.

  2. The upper shim has been split by one of the brads and may have been previously removed, perhaps for dendrochronology.

  3. According to E. Melanie Gifford, research conservator, scientific research department, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., quoted in 2011 examination report by Sarah Fisher, head of painting conservation, National Gallery of Art.

  4. Ignaz Sebastian Klauber, after Frans van Mieris, Portrait of Frans van Mieris’s Wife (so-called), 1789, etching and engraving, 29.7 x 25.1 cm (plate from Tableaux, Statues, Bas-Reliefs et Camées, de la Galerie de Florence et du Palais Pitti, vol. 2 (Paris: L.J. Masquelier, 1792). See Versions.

  5. Entry based on 2011 examination report by Sarah Fisher, head of painting conservation, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Painted Versions

  1. Frans van Mieris, A Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot, ca. 1663, oil on copper, 22.5 x 17.3 cm, The National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG840.
  2. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 21.7 x 16.2 cm, previous sale, Choiseul-Praslin, Paris, 18 February 1793, no. 68.
  3. Attributed to Frans van Mieris the Elder, A Lady with Her Parrot, ca. 1660–68, oil on panel, 22.6 x 17.4 cm, Royal Collection Trust, Buckingham Palace, inv. no. RCIN 404617.
  4. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 22.5 x 16.1 cm, previous sale, Johan van der Linden van Slingelandt, Dordrecht, 22 August 1785, no. 263, possibly identical with no. 5.
  5. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 20.6 x 15.4 cm, previous sale, Rotterdam, 6 June 1810, no. 12, possibly identical with no. 4.
  6. Possibly by Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 22.5 x 17.5 cm, previously Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (destroyed during World War II).
  7. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 21.5 x 17.8 cm, previously Sir Francis Cook and Sir Frederick Cook, Doughty House, Richmond.
  8. After Frans van Mieris, oil on copper, 22.9 x 17.8 cm, previous sale, Christie’s, London, 23 April 1954, no. 38.
  9. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 24.5 x 19.5 cm, previous sale, Albert Lehmann, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 12 June 1925, no. 264.
  10. After Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previously Shuvalov collection, Leningrad, 1928.
  11. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 36.8 x 29.2 cm, previous sale, London, 15 July 1949, no. 16, as by Gerard ter Borch.
  12. After Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previous sale, Dr. Frank, Christie’s, London, 25 June 1843, no. 87.
  13. After Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previous sale, Phillips, London, 28 February 1799, no. 41.
  14. After Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previous sale, Catton, Greenwood, London, 10 March 1802, no. 76.
  15. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 17 x 15 cm, previous sale, Stockholm, 12 November 1968, no. 662.
  16. After Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previous sale, Edwards, London, 25 May 1808, no. 54.
  17. After Frans van Mieris, medium unknown, 21.59 x 17.15 cm, previously Casino, Koblenz, 1864.
  18. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 23.7 x 18.44 cm, previously Hohenzollern-Hechingen collection, Löwenberg, 1864.
  19. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 23 x 19.5 cm, City Museum, Arlès, inv. no. 43.
  20. After Frans van Mieris, oil on copper, 57 x 48 cm, previous sale, Stori, Zurich, 26 November 1927, no. 162.
  21. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 22.9 x 23cm, previous sale, Sotheby’s, London, 17 June 1959, no. 99.
  22. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 26 x 21 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse, inv. no. 54.
  23. After Frans van Mieris, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 cm, previous sale, Antwerp, 15 April 1884, no. 70.
  24. After Frans van Mieris, oil on copper, dimensions unknown, previously E. Bolton, London, 1926.
  25. After Frans van Mieris, medium unknown, 17.6 x 13.5 cm, previous sale, Prince de Conti, Remy, Paris, 8 April–6 June 1777, no. 410.
  26. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 27.5 x 21.5, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 74.a6.
  27. Possibly Johan Jakob Mettenletter 1750–1825), after Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 22 x 18 cm, previous sale, MacDougall Arts, London, 7 July 2011, no. 70.
  28. After Frans van Mieris, oil on panel, 27.7 x 22.3 cm, private collection.
  29. After Frans van Mieris, A Lady Feeding a Parrot, oil on panel, 22.5 x 17.5 cm, previous sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 June 1982.

Drawings

  1. Frans van Mieris, chalk on paper, dimensions unknown, previously Eduard von Liphart collection, Tartu, Estonia.
  2. Abraham Delfos (1730–1820), after Frans van Mieris, medium and dimensions unknown, previously Laurens van Oukerke collection, Haarlem.
  3. Jan Frederik Schierecke (1752–1801), after Frans van Mieris, watercolor on paper, dimensions unknown, previously H. de Kat collection, The Netherlands.

Prints

  1. Ignaz Sebastian Klauber (1753–1817), after Frans van Mieris, Portrait of Frans van Mieris’s Wife (so-called), 1789, etching and engraving, 297 x 251 mm.
  2. Johann Nepomuk Strixner (1782–1855), after Frans van Mieris, Lady Feeding a Parrot, ca. 1819, lithograph, 300 x 250 mm.
  3. Albert Henry Payne (1812–1902), after Frans van Mieris, Dame & Papagei, ca. 1860, engraving, 260 x 200 mm.
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