Portrait of two young boys as hunters

Maes's Portrait of Two Young Boys as Hunters from around 1661 depicts children in the guise of huntsmen, combining the standard attributes of the chase—bow and arrows, dead game—with the formal requirements of child portraiture. Child portraits in hunting or martial costume were popular with Amsterdam's patrician families because they projected the aristocratic values of outdoor sport and physical courage onto their sons, asserting the family's aspiration to the landed gentry lifestyle that commerce had made financially accessible. Maes's handling of the two boys' relationship—their interaction with each other and with their hunting equipment—creates a composition of informal energy that distinguishes child portrait from more stiffly formal adult portraiture. The work belongs to his transitional period when his Rembrandtesque formation was giving way to the more fashionable grand manner style.

The paired figures create a dynamic composition within the hunting theme, with dogs and hunting equipment adding narrative interest. Maes's handling of the children's features balances naturalistic observation with gentle idealization.