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Lot Essay
Originally trained in his native Dordrecht, Maes travelled in the late 1640s to Amsterdam, where he entered the studio of Rembrandt; under his influence he produced from circa 1653 a small group of history paintings that have in the past been confused with those of Van den Eeckhout, Flinck and even Rembrandt himself. Between 1655 and 1659 he turned to genre, in which field he painted fewer than fifty works, including the present picture, that are universally regarded as representing the zenith of his talent. From circa 1660 he turned exclusively to portraiture. The consequent rarity of his genre paintings has only served to heighten the regard in which they are held; it is a mark of their quality that only ten remain in private ownership. The last such work to appear at auction, the Old woman making lace in a kitchen, which sold in 1994 for £507,500, is now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
The present picture is one of the most intimate of the group. In a tiled parlour, a young girl sits beside the cradle of an infant sibling, eating from a bowl of curds, near them a cat sits at the foot of a chair. The composition and character of the work - the quiet, introspective quality of the scene, bathed in light - bring to mind the paintings of two other great masters of the period, de Hooch and Vermeer: one might think, in particular, of such works by the former as Woman nursing an infant with a child and a dog of 1658-60 (San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum) or Mother and child with its head in her lap of the same date (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Indeed the link between Maes and de Hooch's imagery is so strong that it has often been suggested that there was some degree of contact between the two: the great historian of the Delft school, Théophile Thoré, even suggested that Maes was de Hooch's teacher, even though the former was by four years the younger of the two.
However, despite the similarities between their works, it is to Maes's teacher, Rembrandt, that one should look for comparison with his genre paintings. The most pertinent comparisons are with the latter's Holy Family with a curtain of 1645 (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) and Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop of 1645 (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). These, no doubt, inspired in Maes the tender interaction of his protagonists - one might consider, for example, his Young mother and her child of circa 1657 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Furthermore, Maes's use of light recalls that of his master: De Hooch and Vermeer were interested in the manner daylight plays off surfaces, giving form and texture, but theirs was a crisper light; Maes, like Rembrandt, diffuses it, softening and bathing the composition to create the extraordinary poignancy in these works.
The atmospheric quality of the present picture has often been noted: John Smith in 1842 described it as 'painted in a free and dextrous style, accompanied with uncommon brilliancy of colour', whilst Cornelis Hofstede de Groot noted how it was 'especially fine and warm in colour and tone.' That palette, composed of reds, browns, blacks and whites, is typical of Maes at this time. The paint is applied with subtle variety: the careful reflections of the pewter jug, the broad application on the background and floor, or the deft highlights on the girl's face that are painted with such economy yet convey such feeling. In addition to the careful technique, however, the subject matter is artfully studied, a particularly enchanting example being the girl's clumsy grasp of her spoon. Precisely the manner with which one might see a young child hold the object, still unused to its employment, the bathetic action adds to the touching nature of the picture's realism.
Henry, 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne (1780-1863), the most consistent Whig politician of the first half of the nineteenth century assiduously sought to replace the great collection of pictures assembled by his father William, 1st Marquis (1737-1805), better known as 2nd Earl of Shelburne, the title he bore until his elevation in 1784. The newly re-formed collection of pictures and sculpture of great distinction was housed at Bowood in Wiltshire and Lansdowne House in London.
The present picture is one of the most intimate of the group. In a tiled parlour, a young girl sits beside the cradle of an infant sibling, eating from a bowl of curds, near them a cat sits at the foot of a chair. The composition and character of the work - the quiet, introspective quality of the scene, bathed in light - bring to mind the paintings of two other great masters of the period, de Hooch and Vermeer: one might think, in particular, of such works by the former as Woman nursing an infant with a child and a dog of 1658-60 (San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum) or Mother and child with its head in her lap of the same date (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Indeed the link between Maes and de Hooch's imagery is so strong that it has often been suggested that there was some degree of contact between the two: the great historian of the Delft school, Théophile Thoré, even suggested that Maes was de Hooch's teacher, even though the former was by four years the younger of the two.
However, despite the similarities between their works, it is to Maes's teacher, Rembrandt, that one should look for comparison with his genre paintings. The most pertinent comparisons are with the latter's Holy Family with a curtain of 1645 (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) and Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop of 1645 (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). These, no doubt, inspired in Maes the tender interaction of his protagonists - one might consider, for example, his Young mother and her child of circa 1657 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Furthermore, Maes's use of light recalls that of his master: De Hooch and Vermeer were interested in the manner daylight plays off surfaces, giving form and texture, but theirs was a crisper light; Maes, like Rembrandt, diffuses it, softening and bathing the composition to create the extraordinary poignancy in these works.
The atmospheric quality of the present picture has often been noted: John Smith in 1842 described it as 'painted in a free and dextrous style, accompanied with uncommon brilliancy of colour', whilst Cornelis Hofstede de Groot noted how it was 'especially fine and warm in colour and tone.' That palette, composed of reds, browns, blacks and whites, is typical of Maes at this time. The paint is applied with subtle variety: the careful reflections of the pewter jug, the broad application on the background and floor, or the deft highlights on the girl's face that are painted with such economy yet convey such feeling. In addition to the careful technique, however, the subject matter is artfully studied, a particularly enchanting example being the girl's clumsy grasp of her spoon. Precisely the manner with which one might see a young child hold the object, still unused to its employment, the bathetic action adds to the touching nature of the picture's realism.
Henry, 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne (1780-1863), the most consistent Whig politician of the first half of the nineteenth century assiduously sought to replace the great collection of pictures assembled by his father William, 1st Marquis (1737-1805), better known as 2nd Earl of Shelburne, the title he bore until his elevation in 1784. The newly re-formed collection of pictures and sculpture of great distinction was housed at Bowood in Wiltshire and Lansdowne House in London.