Interior Scene
by BREKELENKAM, Quiringh van, Oil on panel, 46 x 37 cm
Brekelenkam was primarily a genre painter who specialized in domestic scenes, images of trades, market and tavern scenes, still-lifes and pictures of hermits. The present painting depicts an elderly schoolmaster teaching a girl to read, while a young woman spins nearby. All three figures are intent upon their occupations, models of industry, as befits a well-ordered, seventeenth century Dutch household.