Provenance
Thomas Theodore Cremer [1742-1815], Rotterdam; (his estate sale, at his residence by Nozeman, Van der Looy, W. van Leen, and W.A. Netscher, Rotterdam, 16-17 April 1816, 1st day, no. 84); Sérafin Lambert Louis Malfait [1775-1827], Lille. Charles Piérard, Valenciennes; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20-21 March 1860, no. 53). Comte de M*****; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 December 1860, no. 23). acquired c. 1982 by private collection, Europe; (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 20 January 2014, no. 38); (Johnny Van Haeften, London); sold 10 September 2015 to NGA.
Accession Number
2015.68.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 81.5 × 66.8 cm (32 1/16 × 26 5/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682) was a Dutch painter known for the precisely observed, elegant genre scenes of Dutch upper-class domestic life that make him one of the most important genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age. A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer from 1663 depicts a nurse and child in an elegant Dutch interior in the precisely observed, elegant manner that distinguishes Ochtervelt's best genre scenes. The 1663 date places this in Ochtervelt's most productive period, when he was producing the precisely observed, elegant genre scenes of Dutch domestic life that are his most accomplished works, and the nurse and child subject shows his talent for depicting the refined domestic life of the Dutch upper class.
Cultural Impact
A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer is important in the history of Dutch genre painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, elegant manner that Ochtervelt brought to domestic genre subjects as one of the most important genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Ochtervelt's precisely observed, elegant genre scenes—depicting the refined domestic life of the Dutch upper class with the precise observation and elegant composition that are his most distinctive contributions—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in Dutch genre painting.
Why It Matters
A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer is Ochtervelt's elegant Dutch genre: a nurse and child in an elegant interior rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most important genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The 1663 painting shows the refined domestic life of the Dutch upper class depicted with the precise observation and elegant composition that make Ochtervelt one of the most accomplished genre painters.
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
