Young Woman threading Pearls

Frans van Mieris the Elder, 1658

This small panel by the Dutch painter Frans van Mieris the Elder shows a young woman absorbed in the task of stringing pearls. Loose pearls are spread across a table covered with a rug, and her attention stays fixed on the delicate movement of her hands. As in much Dutch genre painting of the seventeenth century, the domestic scene is handled with a highly polished finish, with careful attention to light and to the textures of fabrics and objects. Given its small size, the picture rewards close viewing. The painting is dated 1658 and has belonged to the Musée Fabre in Montpellier since 1836. Pearls were valuable, so they can be read as a sign of wealth, though the precise meaning of the scene should be approached with caution.

Painter: Frans van Mieris the Elder
Date: 1658
Medium: oil paint, panel
Dimensions: 23 × 18 cm
Museum: Musée Fabre, Montpellier
Genre: genre art
Depicts: table, carpet, pearl, woman, domestic worker

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**A Cavalier**1658Art Gallery of New South Wales

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**Wife of Jeroboam and the Prophet Ahijah**1671Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

**The Painter in his Studio**1656Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

**The interrupted song**1671Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris

**A Boy Blowing Bubbles**1663Mauritshuis

**A gentleman and a lady**1678Rijksmuseum

**Portrait of a Lady with a Lapdog**1672Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

**Officer in a Cloth Shop**1660Kunsthistorisches Museum

**A Girl selling Grapes to an old Woman**1655Royal Collection

**Woman before a Mirror**1662Gemäldegalerie Berlin