Young Mother
by DOU, Gerrit, Oil on panel, 74 x 56 cm
In 1660 the States of Holland selected Dou’s Young Mother as one of the precious gifts to Charles II on the occasion of the Restoration. On receiving it, the king immediately offered Gerrit Dou a permanent position at court, but Dou declined his offer. Of this picture John Evelyn wrote that it was painted ‘so finely as hardly to be distinguished from enamail’.