Captain Job Jansse Cuijter and His Family

Captain Job Jansse Cuijter and His Family from 1659 by Nicolaes Maes at the North Carolina Museum of Art is an early family portrait from the transitional period when Maes was shifting from genre painting to portraiture. The identified sitter was a naval captain, reflecting the maritime character of Dutch society and the professional pride of the Republic's seafarers. Maes trained with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1650s before establishing himself as an independent master. His portrait style was still developing in 1659, combining the intimacy of his genre work with the formal requirements of commissioned portraiture. The family group demonstrates the transition in his career from the Rembrandtesque domestic scenes of his early years to the fashionable portraiture of his maturity.

The family group portrait combines the intimacy of Maes's genre work with the formal requirements of commissioned portraiture.