Old Woman Plucking a Cock

In March 1656 a list was drawn up in Leiden of the paintings Abraham de Pape had in stock. One entry reads 'een vroutgen die een haen plockt', a little woman plucking a cock. The Mauritshuis, which owns this panel, thinks it may be that very picture. It is signed A. DE PAPE at lower left, and the museum dates it to around 1650.

Plucking poultry was everyday kitchen work, and Leiden painters of De Pape's generation made such tasks the subject of small, closely finished pictures for collectors. The panel is 49 centimetres high.

It was sold in Amsterdam in 1827 from the collection of Gerrit Muller and bought for the Mauritshuis that year. Since 2010 it has hung in the Gallery Prince Willem V in The Hague.