It takes something special to supplant Bruegel around here. But I’ve fallen in love with the Dutch painter Nicolaes Maes’ paintings of women, since a visit to the National Gallery last year. And I couldn’t resist this eavesdropper when I was looking for a new picture for the blog. (From the Web Gallery of Art.)
Apart from utterly charming paintings of subjects as ordinary as a woman peeling parsnips, Maes did these vivid paintings of slightly (or more-than-slightly) disorganised households – the picture above shows a servant neglecting her work to listen to a scolding mistress; another mistress discovers a servant fast asleep (while the cat steals food behind her…). Maybe the paintings are moral comments on something or other (well, I’m no art historian), but the women are full of life and character and I adore them.
I love Judith Leyster’s paintings for much the same reason. (Not to mention painting some of the most gloriously evil children I have ever seen.)
For fans, Bruegel’s wedding revellers are still on the main EMR site anyway, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
So, I’ve noticed I can buy prints-on-demand of the naughty children and the sleeping servant (and lots of other things) online from the National Gallery. Uh-oh.
Double uh-oh. You can create your own calendar. Very bad things could be about to happen to my credit card.
Early Modern Notes 