Loan of Rare Work of Art for the National Gallery

Gerrit Dou (1613-1675). An Old Hermit Praying has been placed on loan with the National Gallery from an American private collection.

Painted with minute brushwork, it is highly characteristic of the Dutch painter's extraordinary technique. Dou, who is regarded as the founder of the group of artists referred to as the Leiden fijnschilders (`fine painters`), first trained with Rembrandt and specialised in small scale paintings with a meticulous finish, the brush strokes are often difficult to discern.

As both contemporary artists and collectors marvelled at the delicacy of his technique, his works were among the highest priced in seventeenth century in Holland.

At the end of the nineteenth century, however, when the taste for paintings with rougher, more spontaneous brush work grew, Dou`s work lost favour only to be rediscovered in the late twentieth century. In addition to images of daily life, Dou repeatedly painted Hermits, a subject indebted to the work of Rembrandt.

This work of Art can be viewed in the Milltown Wing (Room40) of the National Gallery, Merrion Square, Dublin.