The Old Lover

An old man leaning toward a young woman was a subject Dutch painters had inherited from a long line of moralists, the mismatched couple, where age and money press on youth and the joke carries a warning about folly and lust. Van Mieris painted his version in 1673, keeping it small and close, so the contrast of a lined face and a smooth one plays out at the scale of a miniature. Nothing is exaggerated into caricature; the humour is dry, held in a glance and a gesture. He gives the young woman the finest fabric in the picture, the satin worked stroke by stroke until it shines.