Artwork
Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window
Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Gerrit Dou. It dates from 1660 and is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The lantern serves as a symbol of illumination and knowledge, suggesting moral clarity within the private sphere.
The painting shows a young woman holding a lantern while seated at a window, a domestic interior that emphasizes quiet contemplation and the interplay of interior and exterior light. The lantern serves as a symbol of illumination and knowledge, suggesting moral clarity within the private sphere. Dou's meticulous rendering of domestic genre scenes often conveys a sense of virtuous stillness, and here the figure's modest attire and the modest household setting reinforce themes of domestic virtue and the sanctity of everyday life.
Technique & Style
Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window is an oil painting executed on a wooden panel, a support characteristic of Gerrit Dou's cabinet-picture practice. The small-scale format, measuring 25.5 cm in height by 21 cm in width, is consistent with Dou's finely finished Leiden fijnschilders tradition, in which genre subjects are rendered with meticulous detail and a smooth, enamel-like surface. The work depicts a woman illuminated by a lantern at a window, a nocturnal motif that allowed Dou to showcase subtle gradations of light and shadow through tightly controlled brushwork on the panel ground.
The painting belongs to the Kunsthistorisches Museum's collection and is classified as a genre scene dated 1660.
History & Provenance
Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window is an oil-on-panel painting created by Gerrit Dou in 1660. The work is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, where it remains located. The sources do not document an earlier ownership chain, a commissioning party, or subsequent transfers of possession prior to its accession at the museum, nor do they record exhibition history or acquisition circumstances for the painting.
Context
Gerrit Dou painted Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window in 1660, exemplifying his mastery of genre scenes through meticulous oil technique on panel.
The work depicts a solitary figure in domestic interiority, reflecting 17th-century Dutch fascination with quiet domestic moments and moralizing symbolism.
Scholarship emphasizes Dou's role in the Leiden school and his influence on later genre painters, situating this painting within his broader exploration of domestic virtue.
Overview
Gerrit Dou’s 1660 oil painting, Young Woman with a Lantern in a Window, presents a solitary figure illuminated by a single lantern. The work belongs to the Dutch Golden Age and is currently part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s collection in Vienna. Its compact size and careful finish are characteristic of Dou’s meticulous approach to genre scenes.
Artist & collection
Artist
Gerrit Dou (pronounced; 7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), also known as Gerard Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders.
