An Amsterdam Canal House Garden

Behind the brick fronts of Amsterdam's canals, wealthy families kept long private gardens that nobody passing in the street could see. Troost takes us into one of them in the early 1740s. At the far end rises a garden pavilion crowned with sculpture, and in front of it a gilded figure of Fortuna, the goddess of luck, which the museum reads as a sign of the family's good fortune. In full sun on the right, the master of the house is up a ladder picking grapes, while his daughter in a white dress holds up a dish to catch them. The foreground lies in shade. There a maidservant cleans vegetables, a red parrot waits beside her for a scrap, and a birdcage stands on the ground next to it.