''The Lacemaker'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch painter

Nicolaes Maes Nicolaes Maes (January 1634December 1693 (buried 24 December 1693)) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his n ...

, created ''c.'' 1656. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is part of the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. This painting is typical of many paintings of women in interiors painted by Maes in the time. The woman is making

bobbin lace 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 ...

using a lace pillow that can be seen in other Maes paintings of lacemakers: File:Nicolaes Maes 009.jpg, '' The Old Lacemaker'', circa 1655 File:Nicolaes Maes, Lacemaker.JPG, ''The Lacemaker'', 1655 The child in a highchair was a popular subject for many Dutch genre painters, and this painting shows how it was used as a safe place to play as well as for eating. The empty bowl of porridge is on the floor along with some other items the boy has let fall. He is wearing a red '' valhoed'' or falling cap, which seems to indicate that confinement in the chair is necessary if any lacemaking is going to get done. Some other 17th-century examples of paintings of children with their high chairs: File:Johannes Verspronck - Boy Sleeping in a High Chair - 1654.jpg, ''Boy Sleeping in a High Chair'', 1654, by Johannes Verspronck File:Govert Flinck 010.jpg, ''Girl with her High Chair'', 1640, by

Govert Flinck Govert (or Govaert) Teuniszoon Flinck (25 January 16152 February 1660) was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Life Born at Kleve, capital of the Duchy of Cleves, which was occupied at the time by the United Provinces, he was apprenticed by ...

This painting 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; "75. A Young Lace-Maker. Sm. Suppl. 13. She wears a red dress and white apron, and sits at a window which lights the room. Beside her, her little child, in a yellow frock, plays in a wooden chair. To the right is a table with a red cover, on which is an earthenware pot. Signed in full in large antique letters ; canvas, 17 1/2 inches by 20 inches according to Sm. and Waagen, but 33 1/2 inches by 30 1/2 inches according to the Manchester Catalogue. Exhibited in Manchester, 1857, No. 1050. In the collection of H. Labouchere, London, 1842 (Sm.) and 1854 (Waagen, ii. 421)."75. A Young Lace-Maker
in Hofstede de Groot, 1914 In 1916 Labouchere's heir sold it for $25,000 to F. Kleinberger who in turn sold it on for $27,500 to

Michael Friedsam Col. Michael Friedsam (1860–1931) was an American philanthropist of New York City. Friedsam was the former president of B. Altman and Company and one of the premier art collectors in America at that time. The Friedsam residence located at 4 ...

. Friedsam bequeathed it to the museum in 1931.

References

External links

A young woman making lace with a child in a chair, ca. 1656
in the RKD {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacemaker (Maes), The 1656 paintings Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings by Nicolaes Maes Paintings of lacemakers Paintings of children Paintings of women