Quiringh van Brekelenkam

An Old Woman Bleeding a Young Woman, known as 'The Bloodletting'

Quiringh van Brekelenkam
An Old Woman Bleeding a Young Woman, known as 'The Bloodletting'

1660 On view in Room 14

Brekelenkam specialised in the subject of ordinary people going about their daily business. Here, he painted an elderly woman bleeding a younger woman. She is using heated pottery cups, which is why she is called a ‘cupper’. Bleeding was supposed to help prevent miscarriages – so the young woman may be pregnant.

Technical details

Quiringh van Brekelenkam
An Old Woman Bleeding a Young Woman, known as 'The Bloodletting'

1660 On view in Room 14

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Details

General information
Artist Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Zwammerdam after? 1622 - in or after 1669 Leiden)
Title An Old Woman Bleeding a Young Woman, known as 'The Bloodletting'
Dated 1660
Object name painting
Inventory number 562
On view in Room 14
Material and technical details
Technique oil
Material panel
Dimensions 47.9 x 36.7 cm
Inscriptions
Signed on the foot-warmer: QVB
in ligature

Provenance

Possibly collection Pieter François Clignet, Leiden, 1776; sale Hendrik Twent (anonymous part), Leiden, 11 August 1789 (Lugt 4469), no. 142 (for 175 guilders to Delfos); Menno, Baron Van Coehoorn; his sale, Amsterdam, 19 October 1801 (Lugt 6320), no. 8 (for 355 guilders to Theodorus Spaan); Pieter de Smeth, Lord of Alphen and Rietveld, Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam, 1-2 August 1810 (Lugt 7842), no. 16 (for 275 guilders to Van I(Y)peren for Bredius sr.); Abraham Bredius, Naarden, 1810-1863; his grandson, Abraham Bredius, Amsterdam and The Hague, before 1889-1946 (on loan to the Mauritshuis, since 1892); bequest of Abraham Bredius, 1946