1. Nicolaes Maes was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life.
21 Facts About Nicolaes Maes
1. 2.
Nicolaes Maes was born in Dordrecht as the second son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous cloth merchant and soap boiler, and Ida Herman Claesdr.
3.
Nicolaes Maes initially trained with a mediocre painter in his hometown.
4.
Nicolaes Maes remained in the studio of Rembrandt for about five years.
5.
Nicolaes Maes continued to live and work in Dordrecht until 1673.
6.
Nicolaes Maes was clearly successful as attested by the fact that he paid municipal taxes on capital of 3,000 and 4,000 guilders.
7.
Nicolaes Maes moved to Amsterdam in 1673, where he resided until his death.
8.
Nicolaes Maes must have counted on his fashionable portrait paintings to attract the patronage of Amsterdam's larger population of prosperous burghers.
9.
Nicolaes Maes's calculation was correct as Maes was so much in demand as a portraitist in Amsterdam that sitters considered it a favour to be given the chance to have the artist paint their portrait.
10.
Nicolaes Maes waited until 1688 to register with the Amsterdam Guild of Saint Luke, only after the municipality had demanded a list of members from the Guild.
11.
Nicolaes Maes suffered from gout in the final years of his life.
12.
For instance, in the Dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael Nicolaes Maes portrays Abraham banishing the handmaiden Hagar along with their son, Ishmael.
13.
Nicolaes Maes introduced new themes and invented unprecedented expressive poses, gestures and facial expressions.
14.
Nicolaes Maes painted various genre scenes set on the domestic doorsteps and others praising the virtues of good parenting.
15.
Nicolaes Maes applied Rembrandt's stylistic characteristics such as the brushwork and chiaroscuro to domestic scenes that were the favourite subject matter of Dutch genre artists of his time.
16.
Nicolaes Maes has thus transformed a simple domestic scene into an evocation of the exercise of dignity and moral uprightness in a true biblical sense.
17.
Nicolaes Maes created some works showing everyday events occurring on the doorstep of a private house such as milkmaids ringing the doorbell or receiving payment or boys asking for alms.
18.
Nicolaes Maes was able to bestow on these mundane transactions a solemn dignity.
19.
From this time onwards, Nicolaes Maes employed staging and accessories often seen in Flemish portraiture.
20.
Nicolaes Maes created many group portraits of families or just children shown at full length amidst a landscape.
21.
Nicolaes Maes further painted one group portrait of a guild, the Six Governors of the Amsterdam Surgeons' Guild.