Gabriël Metsu

Gabriel Metsu's best-known painting is the Rijksmuseum’s The Sick Child, which features a listless child slumped in its mother's lap.

Among Metsu's most endearing scenes are those in which an old man or woman plays the leading role. No one could convey the beauty of old age so aptly.

Metsu’s peerless rendering of texture and materials can be seen in a little painting in the Rijksmuseum, in which a blushing young fish seller offers a slippery and glistening herring to a wrinkled old woman.

In the 17th century certain animals had a double meaning. Birds, for instance, stood for sexual intercourse and ‘vogelen (Dutch for ‘to bird’) was another word for lovemaking. Metsu's The Hunter’s Present is thus an erotically charged/naughty painting.

The people in Metsu's paintings are often shown eating and drinking. In a small picture in the museum, a couple enjoy a meal of bread, wine and beer. In this way the artist stimulates many senses.

Metsu could paint very finely, but many of his early works are large and feature fairly loose brushwork. A good example of this is his The Weaponsmith.

All kinds of animals were a true source of inspiration for Metsu. In this painting, a woman is feeding pieces of herring to a bony cat. The cockerel next to her is ready to be plucked.

Isabella, Metsu's wife, was an important model for the artist. We know what she looked like thanks to a portrait of her by her husband. She figures in several paintings in the Rijksmuseum.

Metsu's paintings are often very colourful. The palette in his Sick Child is enlivened by expressive red, blue and yellow accents.

Metsu may be at his best in paintings with only one figure, like the man with a jug and a pipe in his The Old Drinker, looking out at us affably with drowsy eyes. During this rendezvous, we forget that close to four and a half centuries separate us from this man.