Caspar Netscher, 'A Lady teaching a Child to Read', probably 1670s
About the work
Overview
At first glance, Caspar Netscher shows two delightful children, both busy. The girl is learning to read while the boy plays with the dog, his toys, including a top, thrown down on the floor.
There may be moral in the painting, though it was more likely to have been bought for amusement. In a popular emblem book of the time is a picture of a top with a hand over it, wielding a whip. The motto in the book reads: ‘The further the rod from the backside, the lazier they grow in the service of God.’
It doesn‘t appear that any whips have been wielded anywhere near the little boy’s backside and his happy expression suggests they’re unlikely to be so. The picture above all shows a charming scene, beautifully painted by Netscher’s expert hand.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Lady teaching a Child to read, and a Child playing with a Dog ('La Maîtresse d'école')
- Artist
- Caspar Netscher
- Artist dates
- 1635/6 - 1684
- Date made
- probably 1670s
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 45.1 × 37 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1871
- Inventory number
- NG844
- Location
- Room 17
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 19th-century English Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2013The Art of UpbringingDordrechts Museum27 April 2013 - 15 September 2013
Bibliography
-
1727L.D. de Saint-Gelais, Description des tableaux du Palais Royal: Avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages: Dédiée à Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans, premier prince du sang, Paris 1727
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1793125 Pall Mall, The Orleans Gallery, Now Exhibiting at the Great Rooms, Late the Royal Academy, Now 125 Pall Mall, April 1793, London, April 1793 - June 1793
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1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1844A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1973E. Snoep-Rietsma, 'Chardin and the Bourgeois Ideals of His Time', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XXIV, 1973, pp. 147-243
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1979C. Brown, 'Peace and War' Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 21 February - 29 April 1979), London 1979
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1983M.F. Durantini, The Child in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Ann Arbor 1983
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1988F. Folliot, A. Forray-Carlier and F. Mardrus, Le Palais Royal (exh. cat. Musée Carnavalet, 9 May - 4 September 1988), Paris 1988
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2002M.E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Doornspijk 2002
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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