The Leiden painter Frans van Mieris specialised in genre scenes of everyday life depicted in meticulous detail and, like other Dutch artists of the period, sometimes incorporated self-portraits into his narrative. This is a copy of a painting in the Mauritshuis, probably by one of van Mieris’s followers. The man is a self-portrait of the artist, while the woman is his wife, Cunera van der Cock (c.1630–1700), whom he had married in 1657. These identifications were recognised in 1717 by the earliest-known owner of the original painting, Coenraet Droste, who sang of the painting: ‘Who has ever contrived, with Turkish rugs, colours velvet and bright, To fill his paintings with such splendid sights, As could the Elder Mieris? Who here himself portrays, and on his Wife’s lap with a young puppy plays’. The artist’s lecherous grin indicates that the episode is far from innocent: a contemporary viewer would interpret the man’s action as a lewd joke – he would rather stroke the woman than the dog.

Text adapted from Portrait of the Artist, London, 2016

Inscribed on the pediment: 'F. van Mieris fe. 1660'