Woman with Three Children and a Goat
Nicolaes Maes
(Dordrecht 1634 – Amsterdam 1693)

ca. 1649–53
oil on canvas
133 x 110.8 cm
NM-100© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Van Tuinen, Ilona. “Woman with Three Children and a Goat” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd
ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-womanwith-three-children-and-a-goat-2/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Nicolaes Maes painted this enigmatic and evocative image of a young

Comparative Figures

woman caring for two girls and an infant boy seated on a goat at the very
beginning of his career. Whether Maes conceived this work as a group
portrait, a portrait historié, or based his scene on a literary source has been
debated over the years. The traditional title of this painting, dating back to theearly nineteenth century, is Spanish Gypsy,[1] a title based on the assumptionthat Maes was inspired by Jacob Cats’s Het Spaens heydinnetje. Cats
published his story in Trou-ringh (Dordrecht, 1637), and his narrative waslater turned into a play by Mattheus Tengnagel (Amsterdam, 1643).[2] In hisstory, Cats describes how a two-year-old noble girl is kidnapped by an old
gypsy woman for her expensive clothing and jewelry and is forced to grow up
as a singing gypsy. At age 15, while surrounded by fellow gypsy girls making
rose wreaths, a nobleman falls in love with her and rescues her. Althoughseveral elements of this story—a gypsy woman, a baby, and girls withroses—are present in the painting, other compositional elements—the genderFig 1. Nicolaes Maes, Abraham
Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael,
1653, oil on canvas, 87.6 x 69.9
cm, New York, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, inv. no.
1971.73, www.metmuseum.org

of the baby, the young age of the woman, and the goat—do not correspondwith the story’s plot, and it is unlikely that this traditional title accounts for theunusual character of this painting. Moreover, the puffs around the woman’s
broad, relatively flat hat are not found in costumes worn by gypsies, and she
does not wear a chord around her neck, as gypsies normally do.[3]It is probable that the painting is an allegorical family portrait.[4] Although thewoman’s hat is somewhat fanciful, and akin to those seen in history
paintings from the Rembrandt school,[5] her simple red dress, plain white
chemise and brown apron indicate that she is most likely a wet nurse or
maid.[6] Maes emphasized the interaction between the maid and the boy
through their compositional prominence and their contrasting yellow andbright red clothing. With a slight tilt of her head, she tenderly leans over thebaby boy in her care, his gender indicated by the red coral necklaces draped
over his shoulder. She helps him to sit upright on the back of a goat by

Fig 2. Nicolaes Maes, Christ
Blessing the Children, ca. 1653, oilon canvas, 206 x 154 cm, London,
National Gallery, inv. no.
NG757, © National Gallery,
London / Art Resource, NY

supporting his back with her left hand and holding onto the animal’sbackside with the other. This motif relates to a tradition in seventeenthcentury children’s portraiture where young boys are shown astride bridledgoats, symbolic of the need to curb lust and to ensure a good upbringing.[7]Here, the maid takes on a guiding role in the rearing and education of the
future patriarch of this family. The boy, elegantly clad in a yellow dress,
embroidered shoes, and a feathered beret over a tight hat—a so-called
biggin—has a sweet and docile expression, as though aware that he is under
her protection. His coral necklaces, moreover, were thought to provide© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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protection against illness.[8]In the foreground sits the boy’s older sister, who wears an expensive goldembroidered chemise under a brown dress. She carries a tubular case forcrochet needles on a chain at her waist, a tambourine in her lap, and roses in
her hands.[9] Another sister, wearing a brown dress and a red necklace, isseen in profile at the far right against the backdrop of a rose bush. The two
girls, painted in brown and dark red hues and wearing almost identicaldresses, gaze to the right, outside the picture plane. Perhaps they once
looked toward a pendant painting depicting their parents.[10]When the painting first appeared on the market in 1796, it was attributed toRembrandt on the basis of a false Rembrandt signature.[11] This attribution
persisted until Alfred von Wurzbach gave it to Nicolaes Maes in
1910.[12] Most subsequent scholars, such as Cornelis Hofstede de Groot,
Wilhelm von Bode, Wilhelm Valentiner, Werner Sumowski, and Leon
Krempel, accepted this attribution and generally dated the painting to ca.
1653, the year in which Maes left Rembrandt’s studio and settled in

Fig 3. Adriaan de Lelie, SelfPortrait with Josephus Augustinus
Brentano (1753–1821), 1813, oilon canvas, 285 x 160 cm, Private
Collection

Dordrecht as an independent master.[13] They connected the painting toseveral works from Maes’s oeuvre from the early 1650s, particularly
his Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael, 1653, his earliest dated painting(fig 1), in which Hagar’s features are similar to those of the maid. They alsostressed the relationship of the Leiden Collection painting to Christ Blessing
the Children, which Maes probably painted in the same year (fig 2).[14]Sumowski also related the Leiden Collection painting to a drawing heattributed to Maes depicting Hagar and the Angel near the Well en Route to
Sur from ca. 1652–1653 because of the similarity of the figure of Hagar in thedrawing to that of the maid in the painting.[15]William Robinson, however, questioned the attribution to Maes in his 1996
dissertation on the early works of Nicolaes Maes, in which he placed thepainting within the School of Rembrandt without an attribution to a given
artist. He still maintains that the “differences [between the present painting
and the two early paintings by Maes mentioned above] are more compellingthan the similarities.”[16] It is true that, upon closer inspection, the modeling of
the hands in the London painting is more complex and the interplay of lightand shadow on the faces in the background of the London painting is more
subtle and has a crisp, theatrical effect compared to the present painting.
There are also differences in execution with Abraham Dismissing Hagar andIshmael. The maid’s white chemise and the white goat are modeled more
broadly and with more Rembrandtesque impasto than the more smoothly© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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rendered chemise that Hagar wears in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
painting.
Nevertheless, the similarities between the Leiden Collection painting andMaes’s other early works, especially Christ Blessing the Children with its
similar subdued palette and monumentality of figures, are significant. The
atmospheric lighting in the Leiden Collection painting is striking and seems toforeshadow Maes’s more sophisticated use of light and shade in Christ
Blessing the Children. It thus seems likely that the Leiden Collection painting
is one of the earliest paintings by Maes, executed in Rembrandt’s workshop
between 1649 and 1653, and before he painted Abraham Dismissing Hagar
and Ishmael and Christ Blessing the Children.[17]The provenance of Woman with Three Children and a Goat can be traced
back to the eighteenth century. Its first recorded owner was Wouter
Valckenier (1705–84), descendant of an influential Amsterdam patrician
family, whose ancestors Pieter Ranst Valckenier (1661–1704) and Eva
Suzanna Pellicorne (1670–1732) are featured in Michiel van Musscher’spendant portraits, also in the Leiden Collection (MM-102a/b).[18] By 1813 thework was in the possession of Josephus Augustinus Brentano (1753–1821),
an Amsterdam-based Italian merchant and art collector. Brentano attachedgreat significance to Maes’s painting, as can be seen in Adriaan de Lelie’s
1813 portrait of him with his art collection, in which the work can be seen
hanging prominently on the wall behind him (fig 3). In the two subsequentcenturies, the painting was owned by a string of impressive collectors,
including Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868) and various othermembers of the Rothschild family, the distinguished New York banker andart collector J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), and the Dutch entrepreneur
and collector Anton C. R. Dreesmann (1923–2000).[19]- Ilona van Tuinen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. Sale, Josephus Augustinus Brentano (1753–1821), Amsterdam (De Vries & Brondgeest,
Amsterdam, 13 May 1822, no. 282, as by Rembrandt [to De Vries for 3,205 florins]): in thesales catalogue, the figures are described as “landlieden uit Oud-Kastilië, welke met
sluikgoederen reizen” (Castilian gypsies with their illicit goods). In 1824 the painting was
exhibited at the British Institution in London as “Spanish Gypsy,” which was adopted in thesales catalogue of Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys, Christie’s, London, 10 May 1833, no.
123. When the painting was auctioned during the sale of the Dr. C. R. Dreesmann Collection,
Christie’s, London, 11 April 2002, no. 538, it was still called “Spanish Gypsy.”
2. See Jacob Cats, “Het Spaens heydinnetje,” in Trou-Ringh (Amsterdam, 1937), 308–47.
Thanks to David DeWitt for bringing Het Spaens heydinnetje to my attention. Mattheus
Tengnagel, Het leven van Konstance: Waer af volgt het toneelspel De Spaensche heidin(Amsterdam, 1643).
3. For a description of gypsy dress, see Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress andMeaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam, 2006), 265–66. The distinctive, disclike hat,also called a bern, was made from wickerwork covered by strips of linen and held up by achin strap. Since gypsies were thought to come from Egypt, they were often included in Old
Testament scenes set there, mostly from Exodus. There are several examples ofRembrandt’s use of the gypsy hat, including his etching of ca. 1644 (B. 57), just before theperiod in which Maes studied with him, depicting Mary in gypsy dress on the way to Egypt. In
Maes’s own contemporary Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael (fig. 1), Hagar is also
depicted with a gypsy hat.
4. For authors suggesting the possibility of a group portrait, see Werner Sumowski, “In Praise of
Rembrandt’s Pupils,” in The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Rembrandt’s Academy, ed. Paul Huys
Janssen and Werner Sumowski (Exh. cat. The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder) (Zwolle,1992), 74, and Paul Huys Janssen, “Nicolaes Maes, Young Woman with Three Children,”in The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Rembrandt’s Academy, ed. Paul Huys Janssen and Werner
Sumowski (Exh. cat. The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder) (Zwolle, 1992), 236–39, no. 30,
who suggested that the artist was deliberately defying the traditions of Dutch portraiture byhaving all four figures looking in different directions. For another example of a maid portrayedwith a child, see Frans Hals, Catharina Hooft with Her Nurse, ca. 1620, Berlin, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin.
5. A similar hat with a puffy brim appears early in Rembrandt’s oeuvre in his Sheet of Studies ofFour Heads and a Half-Length Study of a Woman (recto), ca. 1633–35, silverpoint on vellum
prepared with pale gray pigment, 13.4 x 8 cm, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam,
Koenigs Collection, inv. R25, as well as much later in Barent Fabritius, The Adoration of the© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Shepherds, 1667, London, National Gallery, inv. 1338. Interestingly, Fabritius based his
composition on Rembrandt’s two 1646 depictions of the subject (Munich, Alte Pinakothek,
1646, inv. 373; London, National Gallery, 1646, inv. NG47), but added the woman wearing
the hat in the foreground himself. Unlike the hats in Rembrandt’s drawing and Fabritius’s
paintings, the hat in the present painting contains an intricately woven pattern at the top. For
a less elaborate but very similar dress over a high white vest, like those worn by the girls in
the painting, see Mary’s dress in Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Rest on the Flight to Egypt, oilon canvas, 1653, 101 x 83.7 cm, Milwaukee Art Museum, Bader Collection.
6. The woman’s status has already been noted by John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of theWorks of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, 9 vols. (London, 1829–42),
7: 74, no. 175, and repeated in much of the literature. Marieke de Winkel, in an e-mail of June
2013, suggested the same (copy on file at the Leiden Collection). Many thanks to Marieke deWinkel for sharing her insights on the clothing in this work.
7. The tradition of depicting children with bridled goats can be traced back to Frans Hals’s
Three Children with a Goat, ca. 1620, oil on canvas, 152 x 107.5 cm, Brussels, Royal
Museum of Fine Arts. For a discussion of the motif of bridled goats and the symbolism of
curbing children’s lust, see Jan Baptist Bedeaux and Rudi Ekkart, eds., Pride and Joy:
Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500–1700 (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum;
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) (New York, 2000), 218–20, no. 57 for Jan
Albertsz Rotius, Four-Year-Old Boy with Goat, 1652, panel, 116 x 87 cm, Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum, inv. nr. SK-A-995, in which the little boy firmly grips one of the goat’s horns,
and 246–48, no. 67 for Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Willem Woutersz Oorthoord in a GoatCart, 1662, oil on canvas, 96 x 121 cm, Private Collection (formerly New York, Jack Kilgore).
8. On the benificial powers of red coral for children, see Saskia Kuus, “Jacob Willems Delff,
Portrait of a Two-Year Old Boy, 1582, panel, Rijksmueum, inv. no. SK-A-1907,” in Pride andJoy: Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500–1700, ed. Jan Baptist Bedeaux and Rudi
Ekkart (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten) (New York, 2000), 102.
9. E-mail correspondence with Marieke de Winkel, April 2014 (copy on file at the Leiden
Gallery): “this type of case used by women to carry their crochet needles or knives wascommon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was the precursor of the so-calledchatelaine.” Thanks to Marieke de Winkel, who also lists examples taken from Dutch
inventories of the 1630s.
10. I am indebted to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for this suggestion.
11. Sale of Elizabeth Valckenier, née Hooft (1712–96), widow of Wouter Valckenier (1705–84),
Amsterdam; Rycken, Amsterdam, 31 August 1796, no. 33. See also the Provenance and theTechnical Summary: the signature is no longer visible on the painting.
12. Alfred von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon: Auf Grund Archivalischer© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Forschungen Bearbeitet 3 vols. (Vienna, 1906–11), 2:90. See also a note by Cornelis
Hofstede de Groot of ca. 1909 pertaining to this painting, preserved in the Hofstede de Grootfiches at the RKD in The Hague, in which he tentatively suggests an attribution to Maes.
Hofstede de Groot noted that the least Rembrandtesque features of the painting are the lackof anatomy in the goat, the rendition of the boy, and the vegetation on the ground.
13. Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, ed. and trans.
Edward G. Hawke, 5: 500, no. 89, 8 vols. (London, 1907–28), originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28); Wilhelm von Bode,
Der Meister der holländischen und vlamischen Malerschulen (Leipzig, 1919), 66; 9th ed.
(Leipzig, 1958), 77; Wilhelm Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes (Berlin, 1924), 11, 44, fig. 6; Werner
Sumowski, “Christus segnet die Kinder: Bemerkungen zu einem Frühwerk von Nicolaes
Maes,” Festschrift für Hans Ladendorf, ed. Peter Bloch and Gisela Zick (Cologne, 1970), 42;
Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 3:
2011, 2055, no. 1329; 6: 3628, 3677, no. 1329; Leon Krempel, Studien zu den datierten
Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693) (Petersberg, 2000), 44–46, pl. II, 362, no. D 40,
fig. 5.
14. For a discussion of the dating and the widely accepted attribution of the London painting toMaes, see Marjorie M. Wieseman, “Christus zegent de kinderen,” in De Zichtbaere Werelt:
Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad, ed. Peter Marijnissen, Wim dePaus, Peter Schoon, and George Schweitzer (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum)(Zwolle, 1992), 228. See Piet Bakker’s biography in this catalogue: already five years later, inaround 1658, Maes adapted a smoother style in which he continued to work until his death.
15. Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols. (New York, 1979–92),
8:4116, no. 1835.
16. William Walker Robinson, “The Early Works of Nicolaes Maes, 1653–1661” (PhD diss.,
Harvard University, 1996), no. C-12, as by School of Rembrandt. Many thanks to Mr.
Robinson for sharing his current thoughts on the attribution in e-mail correspondence ofMarch 2014 (copy on file at The Leiden Collection), from which this citation is taken.
17. See the biography of Maes by Piet Bakker in this catalogue. Leon Krempel, Nicolaes Maes
(Petersberg, 2000), 44–46, pl. II, 362, no. D 40, fig. 5, places the painting after Abraham
Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael and Christ Blessing the Children.
18. See Provenance. For Michiel van Musscher’s portraits, see MM-102a/b. Wouter Valckenier
was the grandson of Cornelis Valckenier (1640–1700), Pieter’s second cousin.
19. See Provenance.

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Provenance
Wouter Valckenier (1705–84), Amsterdam; by descent to his widow Elizabeth, née Hooft(1712–96) (her sale, Rycken, Amsterdam, 31 August 1796, lot 33, as by Rembrandt [to B.
Carli for 1,413 florins]).
Josephus Augustinus Brentano, Amsterdam (his sale, De Vries & Brondgeest, Amsterdam,
13 May 1822, as by Rembrandt [to De Vries for 3,205 florins]).
Lord Charles Townshend (1785–1853), London, by 1824.
Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys (1775–1837) (his sale, Christie’s, London, 10 May 1833,
no. 123, as by Rembrandt [to Gordon for 610 guineas]).
Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868), Hôtel Rothschild, Paris, by 1836; by descentto Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1st Baronet (1810–76), England; by descent to Sir Nathan
Mayer de Rothschild, 2nd Baronet and 1st Baron Rothschild (1840–1915), Tring,
Buckinghamshire [Charles Davis, London].
J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), New York.
Baron Paul Hatvany (1899–1977), Cadogan Place, London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 11
July 1980, no. 17 [to Hans Cramer on behalf of Dreesman].
Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann (1923–2000), Laren (inventory no. A-41); on consignment toGebr. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, 1995–1996; (Christie’s, London, 11 April 2002, no. 538;
Christie’s, New York, 19 April 2007, no. 80 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Exhibition History
London, British Institution, 1824, no. 119, as by Rembrandt [lent by Lord Charles Townshend,
London].
London, Matthiesen Gallery, Rembrandt’s Influence in the 17th Century, 20 February–2 April
1953, no. 49 [lent by a Private Collection].
The Hague, Mauritshuis, “Terugzien in bewondering: A Collector’s Choice,” 19 February–9
March 1982, no. 53 [lent by Anton C. R. Dreesmann].
Notre Dame, Indiana, Snite Museum of Art, “A Dutch Treat: Selections of XVII and XVIII
Century Dutch Art from the Collection of Dr. A. C. R. Dreesmann,” 17 October–26 December
1982, no. 8 [lent by Anton C. R. Dreesmann].
The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, “The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Rembrandt’s© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with Three Children and a Goat
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Academy,” 4 February–2 May 1992, no. 30.
Amsterdam, Gebr. Douwes Fine Art, “Selling Exhibition of Old Master Paintings,” 27
November 1995–19 January 1996, no. 27.
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, August 2015–August
2016 [lent by the present owner].

References
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 7: 74, no. 175 (as by Rembrandt van Rijn).
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. 3 vols. Vienna, 1906–11, 2:90.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 6: 500, no. 89. 8 vols. London, 1907–1928. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Die Meister der holländischen und vlamischen Malerschulen. Leipzig,
1919, 66.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Die Meister der holländischen und flämischen Malerschulen: Neu
bearbeitet und ergänzt von Eduard Plietszch. Edited by Eduard Plietzsch, Leipzig, 1958, 77.
Valentiner, Wilhelm. Nicolaes Maes. Berlin, 1924, 11, 44, fig. 6.
Wichmann, H. “Review of Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes.” In Der Cicerone 16 (1924): 778.
Gerson, Horst. Rembrandt’s Influence in the 17th Century: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition.
Exh. cat. London, Matthiesen Gallery. London, 1953, no. 49.
Cunningham, Charles C. “Two Paintings by Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout.” Wadsworth
Atheneum Bulletin 5, no. 6 (Winter, 1960): 19–20.
Sumowski, Werner. “Christus segnet die Kinder. Bemerkungen zu einem Frühwerk vonNicolaes Maes.” Festschrift für Hans Ladendorf. Edited by Peter Bloch and Gisela Zick, 42.
Cologne, 1970.
Terugzien in bewondering: A Collector’s Choice. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis. The
Hague, 1982, 146, no. 53.
Simons, Florianne. “Mother and Three Children.” In A Dutch Treat: Selections of XVII and
XVIII Century Dutch Art from the Collection of Dr. A. C. R. Dreesmann. Edited by Charles
Rosenberg, 54, no. 8. Exh. cat. Notre Dame, Indiana, The Snite Museum of Art. Notre Dame,
1982.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94, 3:© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman with Three Children and a Goat
Page 11 of 122011, 2055, no. 1329; 6: 3628, 3677, no. 1329.
Sumowski, Werner. Drawings of the Rembrandt School. 10 vols. New York, 1979–92, 8:
4116, under no. 1835.
Huys Janssen, Paul. “Nicolaes Maes, Young Woman with Three Children.” In The
Hoogsteder Exhibition of Rembrandt’s Academy. Edited by Paul Huys Janssen and Werner
Sumowski, 236–39, no. 30. Exh. cat. The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder. Zwolle, 1992.
Sumowski, Werner. “In Praise of Rembrandt’s Pupils.” In The Hoogsteder Exhibition of
Rembrandt’s Academy. Edited by Paul Huys Janssen and Werner Sumowski, 74. Exh. cat.
The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder. Zwolle, 1992.
Wieseman, Marjorie M. “Christus zegent de kinderen.” In De Zichtbaere Werelt: schilderkunst
uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad. Edited by Peter Marijnissen et al., 228. Exh.
cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Zwolle, 1992.
Gebr. Douwes Fine Art: Selling Exhibition of Old Master Paintings. Amsterdam, 1995, no. 27.
Robinson, William Walker. “The Early Works of Nicolaes Maes, 1653–1661.” PhD diss.
Harvard University, 1996, no. C-12, as School of Rembrandt.
Krempel, Leon. Studien zu den datierten Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693).
Petersberg, 2000, 44–46, pl. II, 362, no. D 40, fig. 5.
Levie, Simon. “Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann: A Discerning Collector.” Important Old Master
Pictures. Sales cat. Christie’s, London. London, 2002, 9–14.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed,
has been lined. Paper tape covers the fabric edges along all four sides. Cusping along the lower
edge is not as pronounced as that along the remaining three sides, although it appears theoriginal dimensions have not been significantly altered. A number of chalk inscriptions, a black
stencil, and three paper labels are located along the stretcher reverse, but there are no wax seals
or import stamps along the lining or stretcher.
A border of gray ground remains exposed along the outer edges of the fabric. The paint has been
thinly applied through the dark tones and with impasto through the light tones. Broad, gestural
brushstrokes of paint describe the forms and give vibrancy to the surface.
Infrared images reveal carbon black was used in the laying in of the composition. The horns of thegoat and background foliage have been delineated with strokes of carbon black, as have thedeepest shadows beneath the arms of the left hand figure and the shadow falling across theground beneath the feet of the goat.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images. Compositional changes visible in the© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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images and as pentimenti include a slight change to the bodice of the central figure and to theproper right shoulder, which was shifted lower during the paint stage.
The painting is unsigned and undated.[1]The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2007 and remains
in a good state of preservation.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Inscription, canvas weave, and ground and paint descriptions based on personal examinationof February 2014, while the painting was framed and glazed at a private viewing room in New
York.
2. Entry based in part on a 2012 examination report written by Simon Howell and Rachel CaseyThomas of R. M. S. Shephard Associates, Wimbledon, UK.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection