Enfant et triton

The Enfant et triton (Child and Triton) attributed to Nicolaes Maes, dated around 1700, falls after Maes's death in 1693. Maes began his career as a pupil of Rembrandt, producing intimate domestic genre scenes before transforming his style completely in the 1660s to become a fashionable portrait painter in the manner of Van Dyck. A mythological subject like a child with a Triton — a minor sea deity — would be unusual for Maes at any stage of his career, and the attribution may be questionable. The subject has a playful, decorative quality that aligns more with early eighteenth-century taste.

The combination of a human child and the fish-tailed Triton would create an engaging contrast of tender and grotesque. If genuinely in the Maes tradition, the work would show the influence of his portrait manner, with careful modeling of the child's face against a more freely handled marine setting.