Artwork
Young Man in a Study
Young Man in a Study is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Adriaen van Gaesbeeck. It dates from 1645 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Technique & Style
The medium and support combination is characteristic of 17th-century Dutch portraiture, allowing for detailed rendering of the subject and study environment.
Created in 1645, Young Man in a Study is an oil painting executed on a wooden panel support. The work measures 100 cm in height and 76 cm in width. Classified as a portrait, the piece demonstrates the artist's handling of oil paint to depict a sitter within an interior setting.
The medium and support combination is characteristic of 17th-century Dutch portraiture, allowing for detailed rendering of the subject and study environment.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1645 by Adriaen van Gaesbeeck as an oil on panel portrait. It entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum and the National Art Gallery of the Netherlands, where it remains on display.
The work was executed in the Dutch Republic during the mid-17th century, reflecting the period in which van Gaesbeeck specialized in small-scale portraiture.
Young Man in a Study, painted by Adriaen van Gaesbeeck in 1645, is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, the National Art Gallery of the Netherlands. The oil-on-panel work, measuring 100 cm in height and 76 cm in width, is catalogued as part of that museum's holdings.
No documented exhibition history for the painting is provided in the available sources.
Overview
Adriaen van Gaesbeeck’s 1645 oil painting Young Man in a Study presents a solitary figure surrounded by the accoutrements of learning. The young scholar stands amid a dim interior, holding an open volume, while shelves laden with books, a globe, and a sculpted female figure bearing a scroll occupy the background. The composition reflects the quiet concentration typical of Dutch genre portraiture of the mid‑seventeenth century.
Subject & Meaning
The work portrays a youthful intellectual immersed in study, an image that underscores the period’s reverence for education and personal virtue. The presence of scholarly objects, a book, a globe, and a classical statue, suggests a cultivated mind engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, while the modest attire and restrained pose convey humility and introspection.
Context
Created during the Dutch Golden Age, a time of economic prosperity and cultural flourishing, the painting reflects contemporary values that prized learning, modesty, and the domestic sphere. The scholarly setting aligns with the era’s burgeoning interest in humanist education and the accumulation of knowledge, themes frequently explored in the genre scenes of the period.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen van Gaesbeeck (22 August 1621 – 11 February 1650) was a Dutch painter of genre subjects and portraits.
