Woman Weaving a Crown of Flowers

A young woman in a wide hat and a gown patterned with gold threads daydreams as she adds blossoms to a hoop of flowers, her lap full of blooms, a stone fountain carved with a cupid beside her and a glimpse of two lovers in the distant clearing — a gem-like genre picture whose fineness places it with the Leiden fijnschilders. Godefridus Schalcken, trained under Gerrit Dou, painted this small panel about 1675–1680, and its crown of flowers, the cupid, and the distant couple quietly allude to a young woman’s hopes of love, while the crack in the fountain’s stone warns that even love’s firmest foundation is fragile. The picture hung in the Schönborn collection at Schloss Weissenstein from at least 1719, passed through celebrated Parisian collections, and was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2005 through the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.