An Elegant Company in an Interior

By the 1670s a well-off Dutch household liked to see itself reflected on a wall, and the 'elegant company', figures in their best clothes gathered in a bright room, was the genre that flattered them. Van Mieris made this one in 1675, and it is really a showcase for cloth, the satins and silks that let him prove what a fine painter's brush could do. The Dutch Republic was then the richest trading state in Europe, and pictures like this quietly display that wealth, worn rather than counted. Every fold is built from tiny strokes, the light sliding down the fabric the way it would on the real thing.