Interior of a Tailor's Shop

Quiringh van Brekelenkam worked in Leiden, where he was influenced by Dou’s domestic subjects and by Metsu’s broad touch and intense colours. He is best known for his paintings of men and women artisans working at various crafts: cobblers, lace makers, spinners, fish mongers, and so forth. Outstanding is his Tailor’s Shop of 1653 at the Worcester Art Museum where he finds quiet poetry in a view of a humble interior with the master and his two apprentices at work, seated tailor-fashion on the table while an old woman prepares a meal. Thirteen variations of the Worcester painting have been recorded (fine ones are at Amsterdam, London, Philadelphia, and Bonn); an indication that there must have been a good market for the motif. Like so many genre painters of his time, he turned to more elegant subjects in the sixties.