A Fisherman’s Wife

A weathered fisherman’s wife sits in a shadowed window niche, one of Gerrit Dou’s favourite settings, rendered with the painstaking finish that made him one of the most expensive painters in Europe in his day. The finest pupil of Rembrandt, Dou practiced a technique of minute, almost invisible brushwork and even painted through a magnifying glass and a frame of candles to control his light. This small panel of 1653 shows the polished surface and quiet intimacy that earned such work the admiration of a wide circle of collectors, including the French court.