Nicolaes Maes

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Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes (1656) Oil on canvas, 135 x 105 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Nicolaes Maes, also known as Nicolaes Maas (January 1634, Dordrecht - buried Nov 24, 1693, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Baroque painter of genre and portraits.

Maes was the son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous merchant, and Ida Herman Claesdr. In about 1648 he went to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt's studio. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1653 Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures, with life-size figures and in a deep glowing scheme of colour, like the Reverie at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Card Players at the National Gallery, and the Children with a Goat Carriage. So closely did his early style resemble that of Rembrandt, that the last-named picture, and other canvases in the Leipzig and Budapest galleries and in the collection of Lord Radnor, were or are still ascribed to Rembrandt.

In his best period, from 1655 to 1665, Maes devoted himself to domestic genre on a smaller scale, retaining to a great extent the magic of colour he had learnt from Rembrandt. Only on rare occasions did he treat scriptural subjects, as in Hagar's Departure, which has been ascribed to Rembrandt. His favorite subjects were women spinning, or reading the Bible, or preparing a meal.

While he continued to reside in Dordrecht until 1673, when he settled in Amsterdam, he visited or even lived in Antwerp between 1665 and 1667. His Antwerp period coincides with a complete change in style and subject. He devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture, and abandoned the intimacy and glowing color harmonies of his earlier work for a careless elegance which suggests the influence of Van Dyck. So great indeed was the change, that it gave rise to the theory of the existence of another Maes, of Brussels.

Maes is well represented at the London National Gallery by five paintings: The Cradle, The Dutch Housewife, The Idle Servant, The Card Players, and a man's portrait. At Amsterdam, besides the splendid examples to be found at the Rijksmuseum, is the Inquisitive Servant of the Six collection. At Buckingham Palace is The Listening Girl (repetitions exist), and at Apsley House Selling Milk and The Listener. Other notable examples are at the Berlin, Brussels, St Petersburg, the Hague, Frankfort, Hanover and Munich galleries.

[edit] Selected artworks

Portrait of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester - Oil on canvas, 110,5 x 88 cm, Private collection
Christ Before Pilate (1649-1650) - Oil on canvas, 216 x 174 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Portrait of Four Children (1657) - Oil on canvas, 150 x 112 cm, Groeninge Museum, Bruges
Christ Blessing the Children (1652-1653) -Oil on canvas, 206 x 154 cm, National Gallery, London
Portrait of Justus Criex (1666) - Oil on canvas, 109 x 92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Eavesdropper with a Scolding Woman (1655) - Oil on panel, 46,3 x 72,2 cm, Private collection
The Housekeeper
The Idle Servant (1655) - Oil on wood, 70 x 53 cm, National Gallery, London
The Lacemaker (1649-1650) - Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Old Woman Dozing (1656) - Oil on canvas, 135 x 105 cm, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Portrait of a Woman (1667) - Oil on canvas, 90 x 72 cm, Musée d'Arras, Arras
Portrait of a Woman - Oil on canvas, 89,6 x 71,2 cm, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent
A Woman Spinning (1655) - Oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Apostle Thomas (1656) - Oil on canvas, Staatliche Museen
Woman Plucking a Duck (c. 1656) - Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Old Woman at Prayer (c.1656) - Oil on canvas, 134 x 113 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Doing the Accounts (1656) - Oil on canvas, 66 x 54 cm, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis
The Eavesdropper (1657) - Oil on canvas, 92 x 122 c, Public collection
Portrait of Jacob Trip (c. 1660) - Oil on canvas, 88 x 68 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, Wife of Jacob Trip (c. 1660) - Oil on canvas, 88 x 68 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Children Bathing (1665-1670) - Oil on canvas, 72 x 91 cm, Louvre, Paris
Portrait of Simon van Alphen (c.1680) - Oil on canvas, 71 x 57 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam