''The Lace-Maker'' is an

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

painting by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

painter

Gabriël Metsu Gabriël Metsu (1629–1667) was a List of Dutch painters, Dutch painter of history paintings, still lifes, portraits, and genre works. He was "a highly eclectic artist, who did not adhere to a consistent style, technique, or one type of subject ...

, created ''c.'' 1663. It is an example of

Dutch Golden Age painting Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republ ...

and is part of the collection of

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstand ...

, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Description

The woman is looking at the viewer and on her lap is a

lace pillow Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually de ...

for bobbin lace. This is one of the Metsu paintings with the longest provenance in any collection today, first recorded in 1722. It was documented by

Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...

in 1914, who wrote:

79. THE LACE-MAKER. Sm. 112. In a room with an oil-painting on the grey wall, a lady is seated at work with a lace pillow on her lap. She wears a grey satin dress and a blue jacket trimmed with white fur. At her feet to the left is a cat. Signed in full in the centre at the top; panel, 14 inches by 10 inches. In the Saxon inventory of 1722, A531. Now in the Picture Gallery, Dresden, 1902 catalogue, No. 1736.79. The Lace-Maker
in Hofstede de Groot, 1908

Popular culture

In 1959 this painting was featured on a stamp in the

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. File:DDR 1959 Michel 694 Metsu.JPG

References

External links

Die Dame mit dem Klöppelkissen
in the Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur
''The Lace Maker'', 1663
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

1663 paintings Collections of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Paintings of lacemakers Paintings by Gabriël Metsu Cats in art Genre paintings Paintings of women {{17C-painting-stub