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| The Lacemaker |
Artist:Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, Dordrecht 1634–1693 Amsterdam)
Date:ca. 1656
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:17 3/4 x 20 3/4 in. (45.1 x 52.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number:32.100.5
A young mother makes lace while the boy in a high chair entertains himself (the objects are probably a pacifier and a ball). A ceramic porringer has been put down on the floor, where the silver cup and rattle would have arrived spontaneously. A family man himself, Maes often treated the themes of motherhood and domestic virtue during the 1650s.
Catalogue Entry
Sewing, spinning, and the more meticulous craft of lacemaking were appreciated during Maes's time as examples of diligence and feminine virtue. The theme of lacemaking flourished in genre paintings of the 1650s and 1660s, together with other images of conscientious housemaking; a fair number of lacemakers were depicted by Leiden artists such as Quirijn van Brekelenkam, Gabriël Metsu, Pieter van Slingelandt, and Adriaen van Gaesbeeck. But no Dutch artist returned to the subject as frequently as did Maes during the 1650s, both in paintings and in drawings. The rectilinear arrangement of this composition is typical of his domestic scenes dating from the period.
[2013; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
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