The Young Mother

A very private, tranquil scene: a young woman has taken her child out of the cradle to breast-feed it. But the baby is looking upwards, distracted by a young girl with a rattle.

The setting is an elegantly furnished room, typical of the Dutch bourgeoisie of the 17th century. We are looking in through a raised curtain.

The scene alludes to life’s decline and inevitable end. From the baby’s cradle in the right foreground...

...to the infant in its mother’s lap,

... and the scene with the doctor in the background, Gerrit Dou (1613–1675) presents the viewer with the different ages and stages of life.

The doctor is attending an elderly patient. He is holding up a urine sample, checking it by the light of a side window - as the last hint to the end of life.

The painting is an outstanding example of the full flowering of the art of the Netherlandish painter. Here we have someone who looks very closely at his subject-matter, capturing the distinctive form and materiality of every detail.

The mother’s velvet house-jacket has a quite different texture from the rough weave of the curtain.

The brass of the chandelier reflects the light with a warmer sheen than the silver of the candlestick on the table.

With the help of a magnifying glass, the artist succeeded in rendering the finest of details. The burgomaster (mayor) of Leiden said of him: ‘No-one who saw his work could help but be astonished at the remarkable care of the execution.’

Because of his passion for minute detail and the perfection of his technique, Gerrit Dou is considered to be the founder of the Leiden Fijnschilders (Leiden Fine Painters), whose painting style continued to be practised far into the 18th century.