Maulstick

This painting by Adriaen van Ostade shows a mahlstick in use in the artist's studio

Georg Friedrich Kersting's studio portrait of Caspar David Friedrich (1819) shows the painter holding a maulstick.

A mahlstick, or maulstick, is a stick with a soft leather or padded head used by painters to support the hand holding the paintbrush. The word derives from the Dutch maalstok 'painter's stick', from malen 'to paint'.

In 16th- through 19th-century paintings of artists, including self-portraits, the maulstick is often depicted as part of the painter's equipment.

• 
  William-Adolphe Bouguereau holding painting implements
• 
  Self portrait of Caterina van Hemessen
• 
  Self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola
• 
  Portrait of Eva Gonzalès, by Édouard Manet
• 
  Detail of Vermeer's Art of Painting with artist using mahlstick

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Maulstick". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 904.