press release | 1 February 2023

Research Museum De Lakenhal leads to new discoveries about master painter David Bailly

In the run-up to the first big exhibition featuring the 17th-century master David Bailly, Museum De Lakenhal made some interesting discoveries about this Leiden-based artist and his most famous work. This painting appears to have several layers, providing new insights about the work. These discoveries can be admired during the exhibition which opens in the museum on 10 March.

Unknown master

In his time, Bailly was a famous painter in Leiden, who had close contacts with other artists. Bailly also painted one of the most important paintings about transience: Vanitas still life with portrait of a young painter from 1651. Soap bubbles, candles, skulls - all the symbols in this masterpiece reflect the Dutch master's preoccupation with time and death around 400 years ago. It was also due to his influence that the vanitas genre, which focuses on the transience of life, became popular in 17th-century Leiden.

Research on Vanitas still life with portrait of a young painter (1651) by David Bailly Collection Museum De Lakenhal

Extensive research

Yet Bailly's name is still unknown to many people - unlike that of Rembrandt van Rijn or Gerrit Dou, who lived in the same city at the same time. Furthermore, very little research had so far been done into this artist. In recent years, Museum De Lakenhal has therefore worked together with experts from the Rijksmuseum and Leiden University, among others, to unravel the mysteries of Bailly. Part of this extensive research involved a technical study into Bailly's vanitas still life paintings. Technical art historian Erma Hermens (Fitzwilliam Museum/University of Cambridge, formerly Rijksmuseum/University of Amsterdam) and natural scientist Nathan Daly examined the work using various techniques, such as macro x-ray fluorescence scanning and infrared reflectography.

Different form and meaning

Their research revealed new layers in the Vanitas still life with portrait of a young painter. Hermens and Daly discovered that different portraits had been painted over and that various objects had been moved. For example, a young man appears, and a female line drawing proves to be a completed portrait that had disappeared into the background during the painting process.

David Bailly, Vanitas still life with portrait of a young painter (1651) Collection Museum De Lakenhal

About the exhibition

Besides the technical research into the vanitas still life, the life and work of David Bailly was also unravelled. The results can be seen in the exhibition David Bailly - Time, Death and Vanity, which is open from 10 March to 2 July 2023 at Museum De Lakenhal. The exhibition brings together 90 works: portraits and vanitas paintings by Bailly and contemporaries like Dou, Lievens and Rembrandt. Visitors can thus discover the continued relevance of vanity and the work and life of this unjustly forgotten master painter.