A young Woman with a Child riding on a Goat

Maes's Young Woman with a Child Riding on a Goat from around 1660 shows him exploring a pastoral genre subject that combines the innocent charm of childhood play with the classical associations of the goat as an attribute of the infant Bacchus and pastoral mythology. The goat-riding child was a popular subject in both Dutch and Flemish painting, combining the observation of actual childhood behavior with the formal tradition of allegorical figure painting. Maes's version, with its warm domestic light and affectionate characterization, reflects his continuing engagement with genre subjects of childhood and maternal care that had been central to his early Rembrandtesque period. The subject's appeal to the family-oriented bourgeois patronage that was his primary market made it a reliable commercial type as well as an artistically satisfying subject.

The playful scene is rendered with the lighter palette of Maes's transitional period, combining the warm observation of his genre period with the more elegant technique that would characterize his later portraits.