A Woman Doing Housework, Plate 5 from "Five Feminine Occupations"
ca. 1648–50
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Plate: 8 7/16 × 6 11/16 in. (21.5 × 17 cm) Sheet: 11 7/16 × 8 5/16 in. (29.1 × 21.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1956
Accession Number
56.550.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
Geertruydt Roghman’s *A Woman Doing Housework created around 1648–50, is the fifth plate in her series *Five Feminineations*. This engraving captures a servant woman immersed in domestic chores within a modest interior, reflecting the everyday realities of 17th-century Dutch life. Roghman, a engraver from a prominent family of Dutch artists, specialized in detailed genre scenes that elevated ordinary moments to art. As a product of the Dutch Golden Age the print highlights the era’s fascination with middle-class domesticity and women’s labor. Engravings like this allowed for precise, intricat...