The Old Lacemaker

Nicolaes Maes's Old Lacemaker from 1655, in the Mauritshuis, is one of his most celebrated early genre paintings, depicting an elderly woman absorbed in the intricate craft of lace-making. Maes's early genre scenes, painted during and shortly after his period of study with Rembrandt, focus on quiet domestic moments rendered with warm, Rembrandtesque lighting. The lace-making subject combined the virtues of female industry with a demonstration of the painter's own skill in rendering minute detail.

The warm, focused light illuminates the old woman's concentrated face and hands while the surrounding space falls into soft shadow. Maes's Rembrandtesque technique creates an atmosphere of intimate domestic devotion through the contrast of warm light and enveloping darkness.