The _Trumpeter_ (No. 2351) is perhaps the pendant to the _Girl at a
Window_, of 1657, now in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor.
On the window-ledge in the _Trumpeter_ we see the same silver flagon
and a dish that also appear in the _Dropsical Woman_ (No. 2348, Plate
XXXII.), a world-famous, but not on that account a great, picture. It
bears a somewhat enigmatical inscription:
“1663. G. DOV. OVT. 65 JAER”
on the edge of the book placed on the reading-desk. Dou in 1663, the
year here given, was only fifty years of age, and the statement of
age in the second half of the inscription may be a later addition, or
capable of another interpretation. The light comes in from the window
on the left. The woman who is dying of dropsy is receiving a dose of
medicine, while her daughter in grief kneels and kisses her hand, and
the doctor holds up to the light the vial, the contents of which he
is carefully examining. The artist in this his largest picture is at
much pains to show the dexterity with which he can paint the fabric
of the dresses, the large tapestry hanging in folds on the right,
and the reflection of light on the chandelier. This panel, which is
Dou’s masterpiece and is in an excellent state of preservation, was
originally contained in an ebony case, the outside of which (in two
pieces) was formerly the still-life painting of a _Silver Ewer and
Dish_ (No. 2349).
The _Man weighing Gold_ (No. 2354) is signed in full, and dated 1664;
elaborate care and much time have been expended, if not wasted, on
every wrinkle in his face, and every hair in his white beard. It
has points of analogy with Quentin Matsys’s _Banker and his Wife_
(No. 2029), which was painted in Flanders nearly a century and a
half earlier. Dou’s meticulous art is also exemplified in the _Old
Man Reading_ (No. 2357), _Reading the Bible_ (No. 2356), the _Dutch
Cook_ (No. 2352), and the highly characteristic but quite negligible
_Portrait of the Painter_ (No. 2359). In many respects this type of
picture warns us that within a few years of Dou’s death, in 1675, the
art of Holland passed into decadence.