GERRIT DOU (LEIDEN 1613-1675) – The Flute Player UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £3,832,000 (€4,353,152).
With an estimate of £2-£3 million The Flute Player by Gerrit Dou will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in London on December 2. Dou, like his teacher Rembrandt, was among the most successful Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, attracting patrons such as Cosimo III de’ Medici, and with works presented to Charles II of England. An early masterpiece from his relatively small and highly sought-after oeuvre, this vanitas – a still-life charged with symbolic meaning – alludes to music, learning and the brevity of life. Painted with microscopic detail and an enamel-like finish that conceals all trace of the brush, it exemplifies the extraordinary technical precision that made Dou one of the most acclaimed painters of his age. The picture has been in a celebrated English collection for 125 years, having belonged to William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort (1836–1909) at Elton Hall by 1900. It has remained in the family since.
Christie’s achieved the world auction record for Gerrit Dou in 2023 with A young woman holding a hare with a boy at a window, which achieved $7 million in the Rothschild Masterpieces sale.