Document: The Lacemaker, Nicolaes Maes Dutch ca. 1656

Women and girls were often trained in making lace, a valuable commodity throughout the world in the 17th Century.   Lace could be added to collars and shirt cuffs, and removed or moved to other garments.   Here we see the classic child's chair which allowed a child to stand but remain contained so that this woman can work on lace while chatting with the child.  These chairs were considered part of Dutch child rearing culture.

Met Summary: Painted slightly after the artist’s Young Woman Peeling Apples (on view nearby), this scene reveals Maes’s increasing interest in anecdotal, domestic detail as he moved further out of Rembrandt’s shadow. Here, he shows a young mother absorbed in the meticulous work of lace-making, while her baby looks boldly out at the viewer from his high chair. As in many of Maes’s other works, the color red—on the mother’s bodice, baby’s hat, and tablecloth—provides a unifying element.