On view
Duane Wilder Gallery
A Nurse Showing a Mother Her Child,
1671–78
In a room bathed with warm light, a wet nurse presents a baby to a delighted mother; a dog, a symbol of fidelity, slumbers at the mother’s feet. Domestic scenes emphasizing the comforts of private life in the prosperous Dutch Republic became popular in the late seventeenth century. Here the family’s wealth is indicated by the mother’s luxurious clothing, as well as by the imported table carpet, Chinese porcelain vase, marble floor, and silver porringer, spoon, and charger.
More Context
The Rotterdam painter Jacob Ochtervelt specialized in domestic genre scenes. Here, a wet nurse presents a baby to the clearly delighted mother, mistress of the house. The scene is bathed in a warm, almost sacred light. The orderliness and smooth running of the household and the education of children belonged to the woman’s domain and were her primary responsibilities. Her elite social position is alluded to not only by the presence of a servant and the mother’s fur-trimmed jacket and silk dress with gold-thread trim, but also by the marble floor, the hearth’s tall column with ionic capital, the large painting on the back wall, and the silver accessories placed on the imported carpet-covered table. <br>
Information
1671–78
