Currently not on view
The Penitent Magdalen
Because he enjoyed exceptional patronage, Dou was able to perfect his refined, time-consuming technique and paint more varied subject matter than most of his contemporaries whose incomes were less assured. With its emphasis on repentance and piety, the image of Mary Magdalen—the reformed prostitute who became one of Jesus’s most ardent followers—would have appealed to both Protestants and Catholics in the Dutch Republic. The grotto setting refers to the Magdalen’s sojourn in the wilderness, the extinguished candle to the transience of life, and the new leaves growing from the gnarled tree to her rebirth and redemption through prayer and repentance. Dou’s sensual depiction is bound up as much with his contemporary interest in painting enticing young women and the female nude as with his earlier images of grizzled hermits in meditation.
Information
ca. 1660–65
Colonel John Frederick Everett JP (1834-1903), Greenhill House, Sutton Verney, Warminster; Augustus Meyers, Forest Lodge, Ashtead, Surrey; His posthumous sale et al., London, Christie’s, 13 May 1949, lot 78, for £546 to Edward Speelman; With Edward Speelman (dealer), London; By whom sold in 1950 to Sir Robert Bland Bird (1876-1960) for £1,100; Possibly by inheritance to Pamela Stephanie Helen Bird, Viscountess de Maudit (1910-2006);* Possibly Dr Sydney Wood Bradley (1896-1967), Ottawa, by 1967;** Possibly Helen M. Bradley Langstaff (1912-1986);** Helen Langstaff, Toronto, Canada; Thence by inheritance to the present owner in 1986; by purchase to Princeton University Art Museum 2019
Ronni Baer, “Image of Repentance: Dou’s Magdalen in Princeton,” in <em>Connoisseurship: Essays in Honour of Fred G. Meijer</em>, C. Dumas, R. Ekkart, C van de Puttelaar eds., Primavera Pers, Leiden, 2020., pp. 28-33
9716 2020
