Weird Painting Art History Lady With Broom Kitchen Witch

As she leans over the gate of a wooden fence a young girl stares directly at the viewer. In her left hand is a broom. The contend appears to surround a well, whose dark, round class is visible in the foreground. The well is flanked by a large overturned bucket on the right and a dark object, possibly a trough, on the left. While the daughter's course is lit strongly from the left, the dark background and fifty-fifty the area effectually the well remain relatively undefined and obscured in shadow. [ane] [1]
This entry is a revised version of the text that appeared in the Nationalmuseum catalog of Rembrandt och Hans Tid [Rembrandt and His Age] (Stockholm 1992), no. 83, and the symposium papers published thereafter (Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., "A Girl with a Broom: A Problem of Attribution," in Görel Cavalli-Björkman, ed., Rembrandt and His Pupils [Stockholm, 1993], 142–155). I have benefited greatly from my many conversations with Susanna Pauli Griswold about the issues discussed in this entry. I would also similar to thank Dennis Weller and Melanie Gifford for their helpful comments.

A Girl with a Broom, in large role because of the appealing features of the immature girl and the genre-like character of the subject, has long been admired every bit one of Rembrandt'due south most sensitive depictions of figures from his immediate surround. This bonny model has been identified repeatedly every bit a young servant girl in Rembrandt's household, but her identity remains unknown. [two] [2]
This identification was first proposed by Émile Michel, Rembrandt: Sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, 2 vols. (New York, 1893), 1:75. It was reiterated past, amongst others, Otto Benesch, "The Rembrandt Paintings in the National Gallery of Art," Art Quarterly 6 (Winter 1943): 26. Geertje Dirckx could non have served every bit the model; having been born around 1610, she would have been too quondam to be this sitter, who is probably nearly twelve to fifteen years one-time. Hendrickje Stoffels, who was born in 1626, and who entered Rembrandt's household around 1647, would besides take been too old. The model who posed for Girl with a Broom probably also posed for Girl at the Window, 1645 [fig. 1] [fig. 1] Rembrandt van Rijn, Girl at a Window, 1645, oil on sheet, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Photograph reproduced past permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery . The girls accept comparable hairstyles; they have relatively broad faces with widely separated eyes and low, flat eyebrows; their noses, the tips of which have a slightly bulbous appearance, are similar; and finally, their broadly formed lips are virtually identical. [three] [3]
Computer examinations of the physical characteristics of the heads in these 2 paintings have been undertaken at the National Gallery of Fine art. The results accept reinforced the notion that the model was identical. I am particularly indebted to Ambrose Liao and Donna Mann for their enthusiastic research on this projection.

Whether this work was meant every bit a portrait or as a genre scene has been a matter of some discussion. Should it accept been possible to identify the girl, the painting would near certainly be classified every bit a portrait because of the frontal pose and conscientious depiction of the features. [four] [4]
See, for example, Rembrandt'south Titus at His Desk, 1655 (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. no. 512), which would probably be classified equally a genre scene where the sitter not known. All the same, the setting and accoutrements requite the painting the character of a genre scene, albeit 1 that is not fully explained to the viewer. Why, for instance, is the girl holding the broom while leaning over the wall surrounding the well, and does the prominently placed bucket accept any iconographic significance? [5] [5]
Susan Koslow, "Frans Hals's Fisherboys: Exemplars of Idleness," Fine art Bulletin 57 (September 1975): 429, has associated the crossed-arm pose of the girl with idleness. This interpretation, even so, is non convincing. The type of well depicted appears to be similar to that in The Hamlet Holiday by Daniel Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, no. 56–23). In this painting a broom and a bucket stand up adjacent to the well.

Recent scholars accept doubted the attribution to Rembrandt and some have even speculated that the painting is eighteenth century in origin. [six] [six]
Virtually all scholars since Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, revised by Horst Gerson (London, 1969), 580, no. 378, take doubted the attribution to Rembrandt. Because A Girl with a Broom has a distinguished provenance that reaches back to 1678, when it is nigh certainly listed in the inventory of the collection of an associate of Rembrandt's, Herman Becker, the latter suggestion is clearly unacceptable. Even though the painting was attributed to Rembrandt when it was in Becker's collection, its style differs in enough primal ways from that of Rembrandt's authentic paintings to warrant the doubts mentioned in the literature.

The chief reason that A Daughter with a Broom has been associated with eighteenth-century images is its physical appearance. The surface is deformed in areas, especially in the confront and hands, by pronounced Wrinkling Small furrows and ridges in paint or fabric due to shrinkage, folding, or compression. of the pigment similar to that found in certain English paintings of the eighteenth century [fig. ii] [fig. 2] Raking light, Rembrandt Workshop (Perhaps Carel Fabritius), A Daughter with a Broom, probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651, oil on canvass, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew West. Mellon Collection, 1937.i.74 . [7] [7]
Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, revised by Horst Gerson (London, 1969), 580, no. 378 wrote: "The surface is equanimous of small particles of paint curling slightly at the edges, such as ane observes on pictures which have been exposed to extraordinary heat or on pictures of the eighteenth century. The latter possibility, in the present land of Rembrandt research, should non be excluded." The issue was farther taken upwardly past Hubert von Sonnenburg, "Maltechnische Gesichtspunkte zur Rembrandtforschung," Maltechnik-Restauro 82 (1976): 12. Von Sonnenburg associated the "gerunzelte Farbschicht" with that found in eighteenth-century English paintings. This effect, he wrote, resulted from an excess of drying oil or from the graphic symbol of the medium itself. He questioned whether the painting had been made by a follower of Rembrandt and chosen for a serious scientific assay of the piece of work. This outcome had, until the painting'south conservation treatment in 1991–1992, been exacerbated past the thick layers of pigmented varnish. Technical analysis undertaken at the time of the treatment indicated that the wrinkling in the surface resulted from the interference of an underlying paint layer that had not sufficiently stale. The X-radiographs [encounter X-radiography A photographic or digital image analysis method that visually records an object's power to absorb or transmit x-rays. The differential absorption pattern is useful for examining an object's internal construction too as for comparing the variation in pigment types. ] reveals that the girl's confront was painted over an earlier caput looking upward to the right [fig. 3] [fig. 3] X-radiograph composite, Rembrandt Workshop (Possibly Carel Fabritius), A Daughter with a Broom, probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651, oil on sheet, National Gallery of Fine art, Washington, Andrew Westward. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.74 . To judge from the Ten-radiograph, the pb white modeling around the nose and cheek of the underlying head is quite dense. Footling or no wrinkling appears on the surface image covering these areas of the underlying epitome. The wrinkling on the surface is well-nigh pronounced where it overlaps transparent areas of the underlying images, such every bit eye sockets. It thus appears that these shaded areas were modeled in dark, medium-rich glazes that had non yet dried at the fourth dimension the tiptop layers were applied. [8] [eight]
I would particularly like to give thanks Karin Groen, who analyzed a group of samples taken from this painting and confirmed the assessment of the trouble developed by the Scientific Research department at the National Gallery of Fine art (letter, December 4, 1992, in NGA curatorial files). She specifically noted that medium-rich paint (high oil content) tin can be observed in many of the layers. A dark brownish underlayer, sandwiched betwixt medium-rich layers, contains manganese, probably in the form of umber, which promotes a fine type of wrinkling. Layers near the surface comprise cobalt, which promotes surface drying. Once the surface dries prior to the drying of the underlying layers, wrinkling of the paint occurs. She besides noted the presence of vermilion near the proper right paw that belonged to the later change in the composition.

Although the existence of an earlier form below the girl's caput is adequately easy to distinguish in the Ten-radiographs, evidence of an underlying layer is more difficult to discern for the residual of the trunk. Nevertheless, an earlier shape for the blouse, blocked in with paints with footling density, can be distinguished in various places. [ix] [9]
The X-radiographs [run across Ten-radiography] measure only the relative density of metal-based paints, hence other components of the initial paint layer could be that cannot be read with this exam procedure. More data could possibly exist gained through test with neutron autoradiography. The about obvious of these is along the outer contour of the daughter's right sleeve. An earlier layer, probably the aforementioned, can also be made out nether the handle of the broom both in the X-radiographs and with the naked eye. Also visible through the brownish colour of the broom handle is the full extent of the girl's pollex. [10] [10]
The thumb is likewise visible in the X-radiographs. Since the girl's easily have surface distortions much as those constitute in the head, underlying pigment layers here must have had pigment characteristics like to those in the shaded portions of the earlier head.

Whatsoever the explanation for the unusual nature of the paint in the flesh areas, neither technical nor visual evidence provides an argument for removing A Girl with a Broom from the immediate orbit of Rembrandt. [11] [eleven]
Although a comparable wrinkling effect is not found in the impastos of paintings by Rembrandt, similar problems do exist in the backgrounds of at least two of his works, Abduction of Proserpine (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Br. 463), and Alexander (Metropolis Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow; Br. 480). Non only is the image appealing in discipline matter, the modeling of the features is sensitively rendered, and the folds in the girl'south white blouse are executed with great bravura.

Notwithstanding the inherent qualities of A Girl with a Broom, a close comparison of it with ii comparable paintings by Rembrandt—Girl at a Window, 1645, in Dulwich [fig. ane] [fig. 1] Rembrandt van Rijn, Girl at a Window, 1645, oil on canvas, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Photograph reproduced by permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Retainer Girl at a Window, 1651, in Stockholm [fig. 4] [fig. 4] Rembrandt van Rijn, Servant Daughter at a Window, 1651, oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm —points out differences that clearly telephone call into question the attribution to Rembrandt. The centrally placed figure remains isolated in the composition and does not actuate the surrounding space as practise the girls in the Dulwich and Stockholm paintings. Specifically, in comparing to the Dulwich painting, the modeling of the blouse in A Girl with a Broom is much freer, fifty-fifty in the folds of her right sleeve that are similar in character. Whereas in Girl at a Window Rembrandt created the illusion that the fabric actually rises and turns over upon itself, the folds in A Girl with a Broom accept been formed with distinctive brushstrokes highlighting the uppermost ridges of the fabric. Nothing in the Dulwich painting is comparable to the extremely expressive brushwork in the left sleeve, where chiaroscuro effects are accomplished by highlighting illuminated folds with slashing strokes of white impasto. Finally, while the blouse is more than freely rendered hither, the girl's features are not modeled with the same degree of plasticity as they are in the Dulwich painting. There, Rembrandt boldly modeled the eyes, olfactory organ, and mouth with nuanced strokes that clearly convey the structure of the daughter's head. In the discipline's face in A Girl with a Broom, too as in her blouse, pigment is more at the service of light than of construction. Accents effectively highlight the hair, forehead, nose, and upper lip, but they are non used to create underlying class. The deviation in approach is most distinctly seen in the area of the right eye, where a general halftone shadow does little to propose three-dimensional character. Instead, the eye'due south structure, particularly the upper eyelid, is created with painted lines.

Significant stylistic differences also be betwixt A Daughter with a Broom and Rembrandt'due south Servant Girl at a Window [fig. iv] [fig. iv] Rembrandt van Rijn, Retainer Daughter at a Window, 1651, oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm , even though the two works are dated the same year. The young adult female represented in this latter painting is possibly, although not necessarily, the aforementioned; the pose, however, like that of the girl in the Dulwich painting, appears more natural and organic than in the Washington painting, where the girl's head seems too large for her body. The subject's face up in the Stockholm Servant Girl is more freely brushed than that in the Washington painting and modeling is accomplished with quick and certain strokes. Accents of light assist enliven her form, particularly effectually the eyes, in a way that is absent in A Daughter with a Broom. The blouse, red jacket, and right manus of the retainer girl in the Stockholm painting are also modeled with broad strokes that are quite consistent throughout and help create the painting's harmonious outcome. In the Washington painting, on the other hand, while the brushwork of the sleeves is bold and vigorous, that of the face and hands is relatively restrained, and that used to paint the broom is comparatively timid.

The contrasts in way of execution between A Girl with a Broom and both of these related paintings are so intrinsic to an artistic arroyo that it seems improbable that A Girl with a Broom was executed by the same hand. The differences between the Washington and Dulwich paintings are such that it does non seem possible to account for them by differences of date, even if the Dulwich painting were executed in 1645 and the Gallery's painting in 1651. It is even more than improbable that Rembrandt would have created such different images equally the Washington and Stockholm paintings in the same year. The signature and date of A Daughter with a Broom, moreover, are certainly doubtable. Although there is no prove to propose that they have been added at a later engagement, they are written in an uncharacteristic form, placed, every bit they are, around the circular inner border of the well. [12] [12]
The signature appears to be integral with the pigment surface, and no varnish has been found between it and the underlying paint. Should at that place take been no engagement inscribed on the painting, the similarity in the historic period, hairstyle, and general advent of the girl in the Washington and Dulwich paintings would have called for a projected date for A Girl with a Broom of 1646/1648, just a few years after the Dulwich Girl. [13] [xiii]
Information technology is a curious coincidence that the Stockholm Servant Girl at a Window is as well dated 1651. Both paintings were in France in the eighteenth century, every bit was the Dulwich painting. One of these 3 paintings may take been the work described by Roger de Piles in the preface to his Cours de Peinture par Principes (Paris, 1708), 10–xi, every bit quoted in Seymour Slive, Rembrandt and His Critics, 1630–1730 (The Hague, 1953), 129: "Rembrandt diverted himself one solar day by making a portrait of his servant in order to showroom it at his window and deceive the eyes of the pedestrians. . . . While in Holland I was curious to meet the portrait. I plant it painted well and with great strength. I bought it and still exhibit it in an of import position in my cabinet." One possible explanation for the discrepancies of date and style, given the existence of an earlier prototype, is that the painting was begun in the late 1640s and only finished in 1651. This work, thus, may be one other example of a painting executed over an extended menstruum of fourth dimension (see, among the Rembrandt paintings in the Gallery's collection: Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist , The Apostle Paul , and The Descent from the Cantankerous .

Few specifics are known about the nature of Rembrandt's workshop in the late 1640s and early 1650s. Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678), in his Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst (Rotterdam, 1678), indicates that he was active in the master's workshop before he returned to his native city of Dordrecht in April 1648. The fellow students he mentions were Carel Fabritius (Dutch, c. 1622 - 1654) and Abraham Furnerius (c. 1628–1654). Among other artists working with Rembrandt in the belatedly 1640s were Karel van der Pluym (1625–1672), Constantijn van Renesse (Dutch, 1626 - 1680), and Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634 - 1693). It seems probable that Willem Drost (Dutch, c. 1630 - subsequently 1680) and Abraham van Dijck (1635/1636–1672) also became Rembrandt pupils around 1650, although aught certain is known nigh their relationship to Rembrandt. Indeed, many questions remain about paintings from Rembrandt's workshop effectually 1650 (see, for case, Portrait of Rembrandt ) because it is extremely hard to establish the independent identities of Rembrandt's pupils during these years. Nothing in the oeuvres of artists known or thought to have been working with Rembrandt in the early 1650s tin exist effectively compared either thematically or stylistically to this work. A more probable date, in terms of the fashion of execution, appears to exist the late 1640s.

Although no documentary proof has survived that clarifies the different roles of pupil and assistant in Rembrandt's workshop during the 1640s, the more advanced of his students, for example Hoogstraten and Fabritius, would have worked equally assistants in the workshop after they finished their apprenticeship. [14] [xiv]
Fabritius seems to have studied with Rembrandt in the early 1640s earlier returning to Midden-Beemster in 1643. Virtually nothing is known about him during the late 1640s, but it seems unlikely that he remained in Midden-Beemster the entire fourth dimension without continuing his contact with Rembrandt in Amsterdam. Midden-Beemster is only about thirty kilometers from Amsterdam and was a community that had many ties with Amsterdam. In 1648 or 1649 Fabritius painted the portrait of a wealthy Amsterdam silk merchant, Abraham de Potter (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. A1591). Past 1650 he had moved to Delft. For further information on Fabritius see Christopher Brown, Carel Fabritius (Oxford, 1981), and Frederik J. Duparc, Carel Fabritius, 1622–1654 (The Hague and Schwerin, 2004). In all likelihood they continued to help execute paintings that would be sold nether Rembrandt'south proper noun, even after they had begun working independently and signing their own works. [15] [15]
In this respect their human relationship to Rembrandt would accept been much the same as that of Anthony van Dyck to Peter Paul Rubens during the late 1610s. In those years Van Dyck simultaneously painted in Rubens' style when working in Rubens' studio and in his own personal way when painting in his own workshop. Paintings created for Rembrandt'due south workshop, to approximate from those that have recently been attributed to these artists, would often exist free adaptations of Rembrandt'southward own compositions. These works, once accepted by the main equally worthy of his production, would be inscribed with his signature and the date.

A Girl with a Broom fits into this scenario. Information technology is one of a number of paintings loosely derived from Rembrandt's Girl at a Window in Dulwich. Hoogstraten was especially fond of this compositional type, if one is to judge from his belatedly 1640s Swain in a Hat, at a Half-Door in the Hermitage. [16] [16]
Fellow in a Hat, at a Half-Door is non signed. It was first attributed to Hoogstraten by Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, v vols. (Landau i.d. Pfalz, 1983), ii:1339, no. 856. The painting was besides cataloged equally by Hoogstraten in Christopher Chocolate-brown, Jan Kelch, and Pieter van Thiel, Rembrandt: The Main and His Workshop: Paintings (New Haven and London, 1991), 356, no. 74. The quality of this work, however, is comparatively mediocre, and it is impossible to reconcile the simplistic handling of paint seen here with that constitute in A Girl with a Broom. A much finer painting of a comparable type that has been attributed to Hoogstraten, Young Woman at an Open One-half-Door, signed and dated Rembrandt 1645 [fig. 5] [fig. v] Rembrandt van Rijn (or follower), Young Woman at an Open up Half-Door, 1645, oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1894.1022. Photo © 1994, The Fine art Institute of Chicago. All Rights Reserved , is besides executed in a style distinctively different from that of A Girl with a Broom. [17] [17]
The painting was included in Christopher Brown, Jan Kelch, and Pieter van Thiel, Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop: Paintings (New Haven and London, 1991), 350, no. 72, as by Hoogstraten. I would similar to thank Martha Wolff at the Art Found for her observations about the differences in technique between these two paintings and for sending me detailed photographs of the Chicago painting. In addition to the Chicago painting, some other Rembrandt School painting from this menses, depicting a immature boy leaning against a metal railing, is in the Cincinnati Art Museum. See Mary Ann Scott, Dutch, Flemish, and German Paintings in the Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, 1987), 107–110, no. 38. Equally is evident in comparisons of the hands ( [fig. 6] [fig. 6] Detail of hands, Rembrandt Workshop (Possibly Carel Fabritius), A Girl with a Broom, probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Drove, 1937.1.74 and [fig. 7] [fig. seven] Detail of left hand, Rembrandt van Rijn (or follower), Immature Woman at an Open up One-half-Door, 1645, oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Drove, 1894.1022. Photo © 1994, The Art Institute of Chicago. All Rights Reserved ), the forms in the Chicago painting are executed in a far crisper way, with flatter planes of color and fewer nuances of shading. Differences in grapheme between the white sleeves of the girl in the Washington painting and the white shirt of the daughter in the Chicago painting also point out that the Gallery'south A Girl with a Broom was executed past an artistic personality that favored a freer, more painterly arroyo.

The artist in Rembrandt's circumvolve during this period who was most capable of both the nuanced modeling of the face and hands and the crude bravura brushwork found in the sleeves was Carel Fabritius, just specific comparisons with other works by him are difficult to make because few paintings can be firmly attributed to him during the mid-1640s. Thus only a tentative attribution to him is suggested. [eighteen] [18]
In 1993, at my suggestion, the attribution of this painting was inverse from "Rembrandt van Rijn" to "Carel Fabritius and Rembrandt Workshop," and the painting was exhibited as such in Stockholm (Rembrandt och Hans Tid [Rembrandt and His Age] [Stockholm, 1992], no. 83). The Fabritius attribution, however, was not mostly accepted. A number of colleagues felt that insufficient comparative fabric existed to make a firm attribution. Walter Liedtke, "Stockholm: Rembrandt and His Historic period" (review of the exhibition Rembrandt och Hans Tid), The Burlington Magazine 124 (December 1992): 829–830, believes that the artist of the Chicago painting (fig. 5), which he attributes to Samuel van Hoogstraten, also executed A Girl with a Broom. Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (personal communication, 1993) would prefer to get out the attribution of the Washington painting every bit "anonymous." One of the few comparisons to Fabritius' work that can be made is to his evocative Self-Portrait, c. 1645–1648 [fig. 8] [fig. 8] Carel Fabritius, Self-Portrait, c. 1645–1648, oil on canvas, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photograph: Studio Tromp, Rotterdam . Although the modeling of the face of the girl in A Girl with a Broom is more nuanced than that of the Self-Portrait, where modeling is achieved with vigorously practical broken impastos, these differences may well chronicle to different artistic intents. The boldly uncompromising application of paint in the Self-Portrait was clearly intended to help characterize the creative person'south personality, whereas the careful modeling in the girl's face up was appropriate to her sex and age. The character of the brushwork in the faces of these 2 paintings, indeed, is far more comparable than one might initially suspect. In both instances pigment is densely practical with broad, interlocking brushstrokes that model facets or planes of the face. Similarly placed accents, moreover, help define the cheekbone and nose. A specific betoken of comparison is in the structure of the eyes: in each case the upper portions of the relatively large, apartment, almond-shaped eyes are defined by a black line rather than by modulations in tone. This particular style of articulating eyes is not found in paintings by other artists in Rembrandt's circumvolve.

I other painting can exist brought into this word, a Portrait of a Woman attributed to Fabritius past the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP). [19] [19]
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 3, 1635–1642, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1989), C107. The painting and its pendant (Br. 251), which are traditionally identified as portraits of Adriaentje Hollaer and her hubby, the painter Hendrick Martensz Sorgh, are in the collection of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster. Come across too Abraham Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings, revised by Horst Gerson (London, 1969), 291, no. 370. Although this painting is signed and dated "Rembrandt.f/1647," the RRP has concluded that it was executed by Fabritius effectually 1642. Whether or non such a redating is justified, and I would maintain that the engagement on the painting reflects the menstruum of its execution, the attribution of this portrait to Fabritius is disarming. The differences in style betwixt the carefully modeled head of this woman and Fabritius' more than broadly and roughly executed Rotterdam Self-Portrait, however, demonstrate the range of techniques Fabritius was capable of during these years. The girl's head in A Daughter with a Broom falls somewhere between these two works. The hands of the adult female in Fabritius' Portrait and those of the subject in A Girl with a Broom also testify marked similarities. In both instances they are modeled with interlocking planes of colour that are generally brushed beyond the forms, especially the fingers, rather than along their length. [xx] [xx]
For a detail photograph of the easily of the Portrait of a Woman see Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project,A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. three, 1635–1642, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1989), 677, fig. 4.

The hypothesis that A Daughter with a Broom could have been created during the mid-to-belatedly 1640s by Fabritius in response to Rembrandt'due south Girl at a Window, however, needs to remain extremely tentative because of the 1651 date inscribed on the painting. Fabritius almost certainly would not accept added the signature and date because he had moved to Delft in 1650. It is possible, all the same, that the paradigm was reworked and brought to completion by some other artist at this date. The basis for this hypothesis is the stylistic discrepancy that exists between the execution of the broom, the saucepan, and even the fence surrounding the well, and that of the effigy. Neither the broom nor the bucket is executed with the same surety as the figure itself. The tentative brushstrokes practice non model the forms with bold accents comparable to those found on the girl's blouse. The relationships of scale betwixt the daughter and these objects are also especially discordant.

Technical evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the broom may have been worked up after the initial blocking in of the effigy had occurred. As has been mentioned, an earlier form of the blouse and the girl's left thumb were painted under the broomstick. Whether or not the broom was part of the original concept is of some contend. In the X-radiographs (run across [fig. 3] [fig. 3] X-radiograph composite, Rembrandt Workshop (Possibly Carel Fabritius), A Daughter with a Broom, probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651, oil on canvass, National Gallery of Fine art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.74 ) there is the advent of a reserve left for the broom. The area of little density within the costume, nevertheless, would not have been blocked in with dumbo paints since it conforms to the position of her cerise shoulder strap. To the right of the broom this ruddy is painted over a dark layer, while to the left of the broom the red is painted over the white shirt, which may be an indication that it was applied every bit a result of a design alter. Immediately above the shoulder is a dark expanse in the Ten-radiographs that seems to conform to the shape of a portion of the broomstick. Whether this diagonal shape is a reserve is also difficult to make up one's mind, in part considering information technology abuts another dark area adjacent to the girl'south caput that has no logical relationship to the final prototype. [21] [21]
The only possibility that I can come up with is that the combined forms may have been a reserve for an implement with a horizontal piece at the end of the handle. In any consequence, the definition of the "reserve" that seems to correspond to the shape of the broom has been enhanced on the left past the paints containing lead white that were used at the concluding stage of execution to silhouette the effigy against the dark background (and to cover Pentimenti An amending made by the creative person to an area that was already painted. in the girl's shirt).

One chip of technical testify that links the signature and date, the broom, and the saucepan concerns their distinctive reddish orange accents, which have a vermilion component. Similar accents also announced on the daughter'due south curls and on her shoulder to the left of the broom, indicating that these other areas of the painting may accept been finalized at this time every bit well. [22] [22]
This observation has been confirmed through Karin Groen's analysis of the pigment layers. Come across annotation 8. Just why A Daughter with a Broom would have been worked on at two unlike stages is not known, although it may well be that the painting was not originally brought to completion considering distortions in the surface from the wrinkling paint had speedily developed.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

Apr 24, 2014

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Source: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.81.html

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