Nicolaes Maes

Dutch, 1634 - 1693

Explore Selected Works

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman with gray hair and wearing a scarlet-red, velvet dress looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s shoulders and face are angled slightly to our left so she gazes out of the corners of her dark blue eyes under sloping brows. Her pink lips are closed, and jowls soften her chin line. She wears a black cap over her gray hair, and gold, jeweled earrings hang from her ears. A double strand of pearls is around her neck. The bodice of her dress is cut straight across the shoulders, and white cloth covering her decolletage is tucked into the neckline. A muted gold cloth wraps around the woman’s left shoulder, to our right, across her back, and down over her other elbow. The red dress’s sleeves split over the puffy white sleeves of her undergarment. The woman rests her right elbow, to our left, on a ledge, and her other hand hangs by her side with those fingers nestled into the fabric of her skirt. An iridescent, gold-colored cloth drapes over the ledge to our left and behind the woman. A stone column is along the left edge of the painting and a sunset sky over a grassy, tree-filled landscape is visible to the right. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “NMaes 1676.”
Nicolaes Maes, Portrait of a Lady, 1676, oil on canvas, Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle, 2001.138.1

Portrait of a Lady

Nicolaes Maes · 1676 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2001.138.1

Shown from the waist up on the other side of a strawberry-red table, an elderly, pale-skinned woman sits facing us, sleeping with her head propped on her hand in this vertical painting. She is brightly lit from our upper left, which creates deep shadows across her face, and behind and around her. The woman rests her cheek against her closed left fist, to our right. That elbow is propped on a gold and amber-yellow cushion tucked into the corner where the table meets the wall to our right. Her brows are slightly furrowed over deep-set eyes. She has loose jowls, thin lips, and wrinkles line the corners of her eyes and her mouth. Almost lost in shadow, her other hand rests on the large book lying open before her. She wears a black coat draped over a parchment-white garment. Her hair is covered by a ginger-brown and black striped veil that hangs to her shoulders. Three iron-gray keys hang from a rail running across the wall next to her at head height. The wall is sage green and mustard yellow in the light, and the corners and left edge are swallowed in shadow. The artist signed the painting in capital letters on the right, just above the rail, “N. Maes.”
Nicolaes Maes, An Old Woman Dozing over a Book, c. 1655, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.63

An Old Woman Dozing over a Book

Nicolaes Maes · c. 1655 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.63

Nicolaes Maes, Death and the Miser, 1650/1655, pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper, Widener Collection, 1942.9.664

Death and the Miser

Nicolaes Maes · 1650/1655 · pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1942.9.664

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Woman Leaning over a Lower Door, 1761, published 1765, etching and roulette printed in brown ink on laid paper, Gift of Sherwood B. Smith, Jr., 1977.67.28

Woman Leaning over a Lower Door

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel · 1761, published 1765 · etching and roulette printed in brown ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1977.67.28

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Woman Leaning over a Lower Door

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Christian Josi · 1761, published 1821 · etching and roulette printed in brown ink and hand-colored with white gouache ·  Accession ID  1974.6.1.17

Abraham Blooteling, Abraham Blooteling, Mr. Henricus van Born, c. 1685, mezzotint on laid paper, Purchased as the Gift of Lawrence Lawver, 2015.74.8

Mr. Henricus van Born

Abraham Blooteling, Abraham Blooteling · c. 1685 · mezzotint on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2015.74.8

Abraham Blooteling, Hieronymus van Beverningk, mezzotint, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1974.116.43

Hieronymus van Beverningk

Abraham Blooteling · · mezzotint ·  Accession ID  1974.116.43

Bibliography

1753

  • Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 2:273-277.

1890

  • Veth, G. H. "Aanteekeningen omtrent eenige Dordrechtsche Schilders. Nicolaes Maes." Oud Holland 8 (1899): 125-142.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 6(1916):473-605.

1924

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Nicolaes Maes. Stuttgart, 1924.

1979

  • Sumowski, Werner. Drawings of the Rembrandt School. 10 vols. Edited and translated by Walter L. Strauss. New York, 1979-1992: 8(1984):3951-4489.

1983

  • Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau, 1983: 3:1951-2174; 6:3731-3737.

1984

  • Sutton, Peter C. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Jane Iandola Watkins. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Royal Academy of Arts, London. Philadelphia, 1984: 239-242.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:239.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 159-160.

1999

  • Ghandour, N. "Research on the biography of 17th-century Dutch painter Nicolaes Maes." Oud Holland 113, no. 4 (1999): 217-220.

2000

  • Krempel, León. Studien zu den datierten Gemälden des Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 9. Petersburg, Germany, 2000.