A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)

Willem van Mieris employed the highly finished, enamel-like technique known as “fine painting” to achieve a surface that shows no obvious traces of brushwork. In this scene of domestic life, Van Mieris deftly translated highlights on the cane bassinet and ceramic pitcher on the table with the tip of his brush. While painters like Gerard ter Borch and Caspar Netscher reserved this time-consuming style for rare and expensive textiles like silk, Van Mieris applied it to more commonplace materials.