The Artist in their Studio

“Painter in his Studio” by Gerrit Dou

The Painter or Artist in their Studio is a popular subject in art.

“Painter in his Studio” by Gerrit Dou – Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
“Young Painter in his Studio” by Barent Fabritius – Louvre Museum
“Painter in his Studio” by François Boucher – Louvre Museum
“The Artist in his Studio” by Rembrandt – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“The Painter in his Studio” by Adriaen van Ostade – Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
“Self-Portrait” by Catharina van Hemessen – Kunstmuseum Basel

“Painter in his Studio” by Gerrit Dou depicts either Rembrandt, who was Dou’s teacher, or it is a self-portrait.

The artist is presented as a learned and well-educated painter who has surrounded himself with attributes of the science and arts.

Gerrit Dou was the founder and head of the group of “Leiden Fine Painters.” The Fijnschilders (literally “fine-painters”), were Dutch Golden Age painters, from about 1630 to 1710.

They strove to create a natural reproduction of reality in their meticulously enamel-like small-scale works.

Gerrit Dou

Gerrit Dou (1613 – 1675), also known as Gerard and Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose paintings were small but highly polished.

He specialized in genre scenes and is noted for his uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusions in paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. He was a student of Rembrandt.

Painter in his Studio

Title: Painter in his Studio
Artist: Gerrit Dou
Year: 1647
Medium: oil on oak
Dimensions: Height: 43 cm (16.9 in); Width: 34.5 cm (13.5 in)
Museum: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

~~~

“Young Painter in his Studio” by Barent Fabritius

“Young Painter in his Studio” by Barent Fabritius depicts the artist’s brother Johannes Fabritius (1636 – 1707), the youngest of three Fabritius’s brothers.

It is a pictorial and free evocation of a painter at work. His style was influenced by his eldest brother Carel Fabritius (1622 – 1654), who was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam.

Barent Fabritius

Barent or Bernard Pietersz Fabritius (1624 – 1673), was a Dutch painter. He studied with his brothers Johannes and Carel Fabritius, and probably with Rembrandt as well.

He was a painter of biblical subjects, mythical and historical scenes, in addition to expressive portraits.

“Young Painter in his Studio” by Barent Fabritius

Title: Young Painter in his Studio
Dutch: Jonge Schilder in een atelier
Artist: Barent Fabritius
Year: 1660
Medium: oil on oak
Dimensions: Height: 72 cm (28.3 in); Width: 54 cm (21.2 in)
Museum: Louvre Museum

~~~

“Painter in his Studio” by François Boucher

“Painter in his Studio” by François Boucher is a self-portrait of the young artist. Born in Paris, Boucher was the son of a lesser-known painter, who gave him his first artistic training.

At the age of seventeen, Boucher won the elite Grand Prix de Rome for painting but did not take up the opportunity to study in Italy until five years later, due to financial problems at the Académie.

On his return from studying in Italy, he was admitted to the refounded Académie in 1731.

His name, along with that of his patron Madame de Pompadour, had become synonymous with the French Rococo style:

“Boucher is one of those men who represent the taste of a century, who express, personify and embody it.”

François Boucher

François Boucher (1703 – 1770) was a French painter and etcher who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes.

He was the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century.

“Painter in his Studio” by François Boucher

Title: Painter in his Studio
Artist: François Boucher
Year: first half of 18th century
Medium: oil on panel
Dimensions: Height: 27 cm (10.6 in); Width: 22 cm (8.6 in)
Museum: Louvre Museum

~~~

“The Painter in his Studio” by Adriaen van Ostade

“The Painter in his Studio” by Adriaen van Ostade depicts a painter sitting with his back to the viewer, in a dilapidated studio. The painter seated in a low chair while working at an easel, supporting his brush-holding hand with a maulstick.

In the background, a young apprentice is assisting him by grinding and mixing colors on the table at the far wall.

The studio is full of references to his education and intellectual interests, including prints, a plaster cast, a wooden model, props, animal skulls, and books.

Maulstick

A mahlstick, or maulstick, is a stick with a padded head used by painters to support the hand holding the paintbrush. The word derives from the German and Dutch Malstock or maalstok ‘painter’s stick,’ from malen ‘to paint.’

In 16th- through 19th-century paintings of artists, including self-portraits, the maulstick is often depicted as part of the painter’s equipment.

Adriaen van Ostade

Adriaen van Ostade (1610 – 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works. The number of Ostade’s pictures is about 900. At his death, he had over 200 unsold paintings.

He and his brother were pupils of Frans Hals and, like him, spent most of their lives in Haarlem.

“The Painter in his Studio” by Adriaen van Ostade

Title: The Painter in his Studio
Artist: Adriaen van Ostade
Year: 1663
Medium: oil on oak
Dimensions: Height: 38 cm (14.9 in); Width: 35.5 cm (13.9 in)
Museum: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

The Artist in their Studio

To be added at a later date:

“Self-portrait at the easel” by Sofonisba Anguissola – Łańcut Castle
“Portrait of Eva Gonzalés in Manet’s studio” by Édouard Manet – National Gallery – London
“The Art of Painting” by Johannes Vermeer – Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Painter in his Studio by Adriaen van Ostade – Etching – Princeton University Art Museum
Painter in His Studio by Adriaen van Ostade – Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Painter in his Studio by Hendrik Gerritsz Pot – Kunstmuseum Den Haag
The Painter Monet in his Studio-boat by Edouard Manet – Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
Self Portrait of the Artist in his Studio by Lars Gustaf Sellstedt – Albright–Knox Art Gallery
A painter in his studio by an anonymous pupil of Rembrandt – The Kremer Collection

A Tour of Famous Artists You Should Know

Duccio (1255 – 1319)
Jan van Eyck (1390 – 1441)
Giovanni Bellini (1430 – 1516)
Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510)
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448 – 1494)
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528)
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553)
Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)
Raphael (1483 – 1520)
Titian (1488 – 1576)
Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 – 1543)
Tintoretto (1518 – 1594)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 – 1569)
Paolo Veronese (1528 – 1588)
El Greco (1541 – 1614)
Caravaggio (1571 – 1610)
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)
Georges de La Tour (1593 – 1652)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)
Anthony van Dyck (1599 – 1641)
Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665)
Diego Velázquez (1599 – 1660)
Rembrandt (1606 – 1669)
Pieter de Hooch (1629 – 1684)
Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675)
Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648 – 1711)
Canaletto (1697 – 1768)
François Boucher (1703 – 1770)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732 – 1806)
John Singleton Copley (1738 – 1815)
Benjamin West (1738 – 1820)
Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807)
Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828)
Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825)
Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822)
Katsushika Hokusai ( 1760 – 1849)
Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840)
J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851)
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 – 1867)
William Etty (1787 – 1849)
Eugène Delacroix (1798 – 1863)
George Caleb Bingham (1811 – 1879)
Rosa Bonheur (1822 – 1899)
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824 – 1904)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882)
John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896)
Frederic Leighton (1830 – 1896)
Camille Pissarro (1830 – 1903 )
Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903)
Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
James Tissot (1836 – 1902)
Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910)
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836 – 1912)
Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906)
Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917)
Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919)
Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895)
Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910)
Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926)
Elizabeth Thompson (1846 – 1933)
Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894)
Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903)
John William Waterhouse (1849 – 1917)
Jean Béraud (1849 – 1935)
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890)
Frederick McCubbin (1855 – 1917)
John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925)
Tom Roberts (1856 – 1931)
Lovis Corinth (1858 – 1925)
Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891)
Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918)
Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901)
Rupert Bunny (1864 – 1947)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944)
Arthur Streeton (1867 – 1943)
Pierre Bonnard (1867 – 1947)
Franz Marc (1880 – 1916)
Goyō Hashiguchi (1880 – 1921)
George Bellows (1882 – 1925)
Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967)
Amedeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920)
Fernando Botero (born 1932)
Artists and their Art
Women in the Arts
Famous French Painters You Should Know

Women in the Arts

Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648 – 1711)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656)
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun ( 1755 – 1842)
Marie-Denise Villers (1774 – 1821)
Rosa Bonheur (1822 – 1899)
Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1823 – 1903)
Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895)
Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926)
Anna Lea Merritt (1844 – 1930)
Elizabeth Thompson (1846 – 1933)
Margaret Bernadine Hall (1863 – 1910)
Artists and their Art
Women in the Arts

~~~

“Every artist was first an amateur.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

~~~

Photo Credit: 1) Gerrit Dou / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons; Barent Fabritius / Public domain; François Boucher / Public domain; Rembrandt / Public domain; Adriaen van Ostade / Public domain; Catharina van Hemessen / Public domain

Popular this Week Museums, Art Galleries & Historical Sites - Virtual Tours