Attributed to Gabriel Metsu
Dutch Republic · Baroque
The story
Gabriel Metsu began in his home town of Leiden with large biblical scenes, and only after moving to Amsterdam in the mid-1650s did he turn to the small interiors that made his name. His career lasted barely 20 years, his manner shifted more than once, and he often borrowed from the painters around him. That range is one reason pictures have moved onto his name and off it again.
Attributed to Gabriel Metsu is the label a museum uses when it still considers a picture probably his, while the signature, the documents or the agreement of specialists fall short of proof. It claims less than a plain attribution to Metsu and more than follower of Metsu, which means an unnamed painter working in his manner.
For such questions the reference is the catalogue of his work by the curator Adriaan Waiboer, published by Yale University Press in 2012, which keeps the paintings he accepts apart from a separate list of doubtful and rejected ones.
