The Scholar's Hourglass

About this work

Light is the subject as much as the objects. The tall candle at centre right is the brightest point, and from there a warm glow spreads outwards, picking out the brass hourglass on the left, the worn spines of the leather books beneath it and the pages of the open book in the foreground. Everything else falls away into a very dark brown-black, so each object seems to step forward out of shadow. The composition is built in steps: the stacked books and hourglass, the tall upright volume behind, the candle, then the low melted stub and the dark quill. Gold highlights on the brass flicker across the surface like reflections. From a distance you see a warm pool of light in darkness; close up, the textures of leather, wax and paper come through.

In the Dutch Republic of the 17th century, painters developed a type of still life known as vanitas, after a line from Ecclesiastes, vanitas vanitatum, vanity of vanities. Ordinary objects were arranged to remind the viewer that time passes and earthly things do not last. An hourglass, with its sand running out, and a candle burning down or already guttered were among the most common signs. The university town of Leiden became an early centre of the genre, and books, often worn and scholarly, appear in many of these paintings, hinting that even learning belongs to a limited lifetime. The Scholar's Hourglass follows that tradition, without the skull that many vanitas pictures included.

Paired with The Raven and the Candle, it builds a small gallery of candlelit still lifes. The Midnight Reading Room would extend the theme into a full library scene on a neighbouring wall. Dark, warm walls suit it best: chocolate, deep green, oxblood or charcoal. On pale walls a black frame and a broad cream mat stop it from looking like a hole in the plaster. An antique gold or dark walnut frame gives an old-master feel. Hang it where a lamp falls across it, since the gold highlights come alive in warm light. The 7168 × 10752 px file keeps the print sharp to about 60 × 90 cm, a fine size above a fireplace. You also get a Frame TV version with a gallery mat.