Un ermite

Gerrit Dou trained in Leiden as Rembrandt's first pupil, then went the opposite way. Where his teacher grew loose and broad, Dou grew microscopic. This small panel from 1655 shows an old hermit at prayer in a rocky hollow, a candle, an open Bible, and a human skull on the stone before him. Those were the standard reminders that earthly life is brief. Collectors paid extraordinary sums for exactly this, pictures so finely finished you could almost count the hairs of the beard. Dou was said to grind his own pigments and wait for the dust to settle before he touched the panel. The whole thing is barely larger than a sheet of paper.