DOUW, or DOW, GERARD, was born at Leyden in 1613. In 1622 he was put by his father, a glazier, to study drawing under Bartho lomew Deland°, an engraver, with whom he remained eighteen months. He afterwards received the instructions of Peter Kouwhoorn, a painter on glass, and learned his art so well that he proved of great advantage to his father. It being determined that he should study painting in oil, the illustrious Rembrandt was in 1623 chosen for the lad's master. From that great painter Gerard learned the mastery of colour and chiaroscuro, but when he began to practise on his own account ho differed entirely from his teacher in his manner of painting. Instead of growing bolder and rougher in his handling as he grew older, ho became more and more delicate in his finish, elaborating everything which be touched with the most exquisite delicacy and minuteness, insomuch that the threads of brocades and of fine carpets are expressed even in his smallest paintings. Nothing escaped his eye or his pencil. And yet, with all his elaboration of detail, his pictures are powerful in effect and harmonious and brilliant in colour. As specimens of technical ability they are admirable, as illustrations of mental power their value is very little. He was accustomed to prepare his own tools, that ho might have them of the requisite fineness.
Gerard Douw has been charged with excessive slowness in finishing, and some anecdotes are told in proof of it. Saudrart says that he
once visited Gemrd's study in company with Bamboccio, and on their both expressing their admiration of a certain miniature broom-handle in one of his pictures, he said that he should spend three more days upon it before ho loft it and this story, whether true or not, very fairly illustrates the character of his pictures—the amount of caro and thought expended on a broom-handle is precisely the same as is expended on the head of the principal figure in the composition. It is said that his sitters were so wearied by his dilatoriness, and disgusted by the transcripts of their jaded faces, whieh he faithfully put upon the canvases, that others were deterred from sitting, and ha was obliged to abandon portsit•paiating. But Karel de Moore, who had been a pupil of his, averred that be was not so slow as had been asserted ; and the number of his pictures tends to corroborate his statement. Douw, like most minute finishers, got excellent prices for his paintings, generally from 600 to 1000 florins ; and Saudrart informs us that Splering, a gentleman of the Hague, paid him on annual salary of 1000 florins for the mere right of refusal of all the pictures he painted, at the highest price he could obtain. Gerard Douw died in 1680. The most famous among his pupils was Mieris. His pictures are in all great collections. (Argenville ; Saudmrt,)