We visited the Maes exhibition at the National Gallery, which does just what an exhibition should do – getting one to look and better understand the evolution of an artist’s career from his early Rembrandtesque history paintings to his invention of domestic genre through to prolific portraiture. The genre paintings are best.
Young Girl Threading a Needle (Private Collection):-
Young Girl Sewing (Mansion House):-
Self-Portrait (Dordrecht):-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
I can’t quite see what the young girl in the first painting has on her knee? I love the focus on the needle and thread – wish I had her eyes when I am doing sewing.