A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
56.9 × 48.4 cm (22 3/8 × 19 1/16 in.); Framed: 83.2 × 74.6 × 6.4 cm (32 3/4 × 29 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
497
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this scene of domestic life, Willem van Mieris employed the highly finished, enamel-like technique known as fine painting to achieve a surface that shows no obvious traces of brushwork. While painters like Gerard ter Borch and Caspar Netscher reserved this time-consuming style for rare and expensive textiles like silk, Van Mieris applied it to more commonplace materials. Here, for instance, the artist deftly applied highlights to the cane bassinet and ceramic pitcher on the table with the tip...
About the Artist
Willem van Mieris · 1662–1747
Comment on works: Genre; Interior.