Interior With a Lady at the Window

Quiringh van Brekelenkam

1669

22.5 x 27.5 cm, framed 55 x 50.5 cm

Panel, oil

17th century Amsterdam School

Private collection

findart There is no evidence that Brekelenkam has had tuition in the studio of his countryman Gerrit Dou, an innovator of style and plot that brought him fame and fortune throughout his life. Although Brekelenkam's findart repertoire was partly borrowed from Dou and the other Leiden Fijnschilder, his repertoire is different. Besides, Brekelenkam has introduced various subjects such as shoemakers and tailors in their workshops.

Since the 1640s, Brekelenkam specialized in genre scenes from various professions: market traders, fishermen, kitchen girls, tailors, and craftsmen. However, since about 1660, he increasingly arranges his genre scenes in a more prosperous atmosphere inhabited by more elegant ladies, such as the young woman in this picture.

She wears a stylish red velvet jacket covered with white fur and a gold silk dress. Brekelenkam created the stage in a sparsely furnished interior, from which an expensive curtain and a porcelain vase with flowers on the table nevertheless made an elegant impression. Brekelenkam depicts a woman immersed in her sewing, thereby causing an image of virtue.

findart The motive of the handicraft woman is a well-known subject in 17th-century Dutch painting. Early examples include the work of Brekelenkam's compatriots Gerrit Dou ("The Young Mother", Mauritshuis) and Adriaan van Gaesbeek (Berlin). The type of figure of the young woman closely matches that figure in the “Crown of Blood” in 1660-1661 (in Aschaffenburg, Bavarian State Painting Collections), showing a young woman in the same dress, similar dress, and hairstyle.


The artist's works are in many museums around the world, including The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum in New York.