Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes (January 1634, Dordrecht – buried November 24, 1693, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Baroque painter of genre and portraits.
Maes was the son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous merchant, and Ida Herman Claesdr. In about 1648 he went to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt’s studio. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1653 Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures, with life-size figures and in a deep glowing scheme of colour, like the Reverie at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Card Players at the National Gallery, and the Children with a Goat Carriage. So closely did his early style resemble that of Rembrandt, that the last-named picture, and other canvases in the Leipzig and Budapest galleries and in the collection of Lord Radnor, were or are still ascribed to Rembrandt.
In his best period, from 1655 to 1665, Maes devoted himself to domestic genre on a smaller scale, retaining to a great extent the magic of colour he had learnt from Rembrandt. Only on rare occasions did he treat scriptural subjects, as in Hagar’s Departure, which has been ascribed to Rembrandt. His favorite subjects were women spinning, or reading the Bible, or preparing a meal.
Interior with a Sleeping Maid and Her Mistress (The Idle Servant), 1655
Oil on wood,
National Gallery, London, UK ▼
A young woman sewing, 1655
Oil on canvas
Harold Samuel Collection, London, UK ▼
The listening housewife, 1655
Oil on panel, Royal Collection, UK ▼
An old woman dozing over a book, 1655
Oil on canvas,
The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA ▼
Boys bathing
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼
