Young Girl at the Keyboard

Art Historical Context

This delicate print captures a girl seated at a keyboard instrument, her focused expression and graceful hands evoking the quiet intimacy of domestic music-making in the Dutch Golden Age. Created in 1767 by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel and printmaker Johannes Kornlein after a design by Jan de Bray (formerly attributed to Gerr Dou), the work reflects the 18th fascination with reproducing earlier masterpieces a wider audience. Ploos van Amstel, a prominent Dutch collector and publisher, specialized in innovative reproductive prints that brought 17th-century paintings to new generations of enthusiasts. The medium—chalk manner with roulette, printed from two plates in gray and red ink—demonstrates remarkable technical skill. This method imitates the soft textures of chalk drawings while adding subtle color, allowing the print to suggest the luminous quality of the original painting on a modest sheet measuring just 17.5 by 14.7 centimeters. Such techniques highlight the period’s growing interest in printmaking as both an art form and a means of preservation. Housed in the National Gallery of Art’s Rosenwald Collection, this work offers visitors a window into how 18th-century artists bridged centuries, transforming a 17th-century scene of everyday refinement into an accessible treasure.