Mother Combing Her Child's Hair, known as 'Hunting for Lice'

A mother bends over her son's head and works slowly through his hair, looking for lice. Ter Borch painted the scene around 1652 or 1653, and to Dutch buyers of that time it probably carried a small lesson. A clean head was read as a sign of a clean character, and the lice comb stood for the orderly, well-kept household a good wife was expected to run. So the woman in the fur-trimmed jacket, seated on a rush chair, is tending to more than a chore. The boy holds still and looks up at her. For most of the 19th century the panel belonged to the Steengracht family, collectors in The Hague. When their pictures were auctioned in Paris in 1913, it was bought with help from the Rembrandt Association and brought back to the city for good.