Possibly by Pieter van den Bosch, 'A Woman scouring a Pot', about 1650-60

A rather lonely figure, almost certainly the cook or maid in a prosperous Amsterdam household, is doing the washing up in a gloomy kitchen. The scene is ordinary and some might say unexciting in the extreme. But such reflections on housework and everyday life were very popular in seventeenth-century Holland – the National Gallery has another take on the theme by Godfried Schalcken which was made at around the same time. There is a big difference between the two, however. Schalcken’s painting is more formally composed, and clearly set up as an allegory on the transience of life. Scour all you like, is the implication, but the pot will eventually lose its shine.

Although probably not intended to represent a particular individual, this painting is much more naturalistic. Age has probably darkened the paint, so that the cavernous gloom of the room was originally not so pronounced. But even when more brightly lit, it would have seemed a rather simple interior compared with the livelier, cosier kitchens which were often depicted by artists of the time. This was clearly a place to work, not socialise, and here we see the maid momentarily distracted from her task. She looks up and her face catches the light; we can see her tired, slightly careworn features. Her attention has clearly been caught by something outside the picture. Perhaps someone has just opened the door, or called out to her. Despite the distraction, she hardly breaks from her work, still keeping the pressure on the dish she is polishing. More pots are waiting in the washing tub in the shadows on the right while, by contrast, the results of her labour are nicely positioned to catch the light. It is a sort of everyday still life, comprising the things she has used to cook and serve the last meal, from the gleaming copper cauldron to the earthenware cooking pot, an upturned straining spoon, ladle, dish and plates.

It is clear that she is doing a thorough job. Half hidden by the stool and pot are the iron teeth of a hearth crane, which was used to suspend pots over the fire. She has taken the trouble to dismount the whole thing in order to give it a good clean. Such dedicated attention to domestic duty would certainly have been considered admirable, and part of the appeal of the picture to a seventeenth-century audience might have been its celebration of such worthy endeavour. They would also have enjoyed the sense of calm, of the order and simplicity of daily routine which it evokes.

Pictures such as this may have hung in the hall or parlour, a reassuring confirmation of the virtue of labour that the owners and their guests could ponder and discuss after dinner, while the maid was clearing up in the kitchen downstairs. The one isn’t signed but it may be by Pieter van den Bosch, who specialised in this kind of genre painting.