Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693) A collection of paintings 4k Silent Slideshow

Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions, and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his native city Dordrecht for 20 years. In the latter part of his career, he returned to Amsterdam where he became the leading portrait painter of his time. Maes contributed to the development of genre painting in the Netherlands and was the most prominent portrait painter working in Amsterdam in the final three decennia of the 17th century.

Nicolaes Maes was born in Dordrecht as the second son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous cloth merchant and soap boiler, and Ida Herman Claesdr. He initially trained with a mediocre painter in his hometown. Around 1648 he went to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt's studio. He remained in the studio of Rembrandt for about five years. He had returned to Dordrecht by December 1653. Here he is recorded making marriage arrangements as he posted on 28 December 1653 the bans of his marriage with Adriana Brouwers, the widow of the preacher Arnoldus de Gelder.

In the middle or end of the 1650s, Maes traveled to Antwerp where he studied the work of Flemish artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. During his stay in Antwerp Maes is said to have paid a visit to Jacob Jordaens' studio and conversed with the artist at length about painting.

Maes moved to Amsterdam in 1673 where he resided until his death. The move was likely related to the ready market for portrait specialists after the death of the leading Amsterdam portrait painters Abraham van den Tempel and Bartholomeus van der Helst. The downturn in the art market in Dordrecht and other Dutch cities as a result of the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) of 1672, which was marked by a large-scale invasion of the Dutch Republic by French and other armies, likely also played a role. Maes must have counted on his fashionable portrait paintings to attract the patronage of Amsterdam's larger population of prosperous burghers. His calculation was correct as Maes was so much in demand as a portraitist in Amsterdam that sitters considered it a favour to be given the chance to have the artist paint their portrait. The great number of portraits dating to the 1670s and 1680s are evidence of his success as a society portraitist.

Maes started his career as a painter of biblical and mythological subjects, genre paintings and portraits during the period from 1653 to c. 1660. He later concentrated almost exclusively on portrait painting.

In his early years as an independent artist in the early 1650s Maes painted a few biblical and mythological scenes. Maes' biblical compositions were clearly indebted to his master Rembrandt's models but show at the same time that he was capable of interpreting the bible and the iconographic precedents in an original manner. For instance, in the Dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael Maes portrays the Biblical figure Abraham banishing the handmaiden Hagar along with their son, Ishmael.

During this early period Maes showed himself to be among the most inventive genre painters in the Dutch Republic. He introduced new themes and invented unprecedented expressive poses, gestures and facial expressions. Maes painted various genre scenes set on the domestic doorsteps and others praising the virtues of good parenting. These works were influential on other Dutch painters such as Jan Steen. Maes applied Rembrandt's stylistic characteristics such as the brushwork and chiaroscuro to domestic scenes that were the favourite subject-matter of Dutch genre artists of his time.

Maes' major contribution in the depiction of interior space was to treat domestic interiors not as shallow, three-walled boxes but as suites of rooms. These innovations in the structuring of interior space were likely inspired by the new story elements he introduced in genre painting. These inventions had an important influence on Delft genre painters including Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch in particular in the compositional arrangements of people in interior spaces. Maes' exterior genre scenes may also have been influential on de Hooch's courtyard views.

In his earlier portraits Maes places his sitters who are typically dressed and presented in an austere manner against a dark background. Maes' mature style was formed during the 1660s and shows the influence of the Flemish style of portraiture created by van Dyck, which had been introduced into the Dutch Republic in the previous decade. From this time onwards, Maes employed staging and accessories often seen in Flemish portraiture. In the 1670s Maes' style further developed to reflect the lighter spirit of the times as he places his sitters in elegant gardens painted in light tones and with a free brushstroke. These later portraits emphasize the gestures and poses, as well as the clothes and hairstyles of the models.

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