The Poultry Woman
by METSU, Gabriel, Oil on oak panel, 61 x 45 cm
This painting is the pendant of the Poultry Seller (also in Dresden). The two works are identical in size, bear the same date, show the same motif using variously a male or a female protagonist, are set in the one case in a town and in the other in a village, and reveal a number of elements in common: in both cases an old man with one exposed knee sits beneath a bare tree with long branches that extend from the painting’s edge to its centre; and both paintings depict an inquisitive little spaniel, as well as plants painted with botanical precision in their respective lower inside corners.