A Child and Nurse in the Foyer of a Townhouse

1663 · Private collection

genre

This painting depicts a child and nurse in the foyer of an elegant townhouse, the parents beyond. The subject matter and composition are related to a group of nine other 'entrance hall paintings' that Ochtervelt made over the course of about twenty years and which are universally considered to be among his most innovative and interesting pictures. All are set in the entrance hall of an elegant contemporary house and portray an encounter between the residents of the house and members of the outside world.

A Child and Nurse in the Foyer of a Townhouse

About the Artist

Jacob Ochtervelt

1634 – 1682

Ochtervelt was a Dutch genre painter active mainly in Rotterdam, but from 1674 he lived in Amsterdam. He was influenced by Pieter de Hooch and through him by Vermeer. Apart from a few portraits and some early hunting party and "merry company" scenes, his paintings are almost all elegant upper-class interiors, in which he showed off a skill in painting silks and satins to rival that of Terborch. His figures are extremely refined, but there is often a sexual element in his painting.

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