Man and Woman with Two Dogs, known as 'Teasing the Pet'

A young man grins as he tries to pull the ear of a lap dog, and the woman beside him pushes him aside. The Mauritshuis identifies the pair as Frans van Mieris himself and his wife, Cunera van der Cock, on a panel less than 28 centimetres tall. He signed it on the door at the upper right, with the date 1660, though the inscription is now almost illegible. The fun lies in the surfaces, the sheen of her skirt and the fur trim of her jacket.

Collectors in The Hague paid well for such things early on. In 1734 the little picture sold at auction there for 725 guilders, and in 1741 its next owner put it up for sale again and ended up buying it back himself at 910.