Dutch School (17th Century), Young Boy Drinking by the Well

Oil on panel, unsigned, presented in a carved wood frame.

Panel 21 x 19 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 26 3/4 x 25 in.

From the Collection of Dennis Weller, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina

Dutch genre paintings from this period reflect the Dutch Golden Age’s fascination with everyday life. Like Young Boy Drinking by the Well, scenes were set in domestic, social, and public spaces like homes, taverns, and marketplaces. These works appealed to a prosperous middle class eager to purchase art that celebrated their own lives and culture. Notable artists like Adriaen van Ostade, Jan Steen, and Pieter de Hooch created compositions that transformed these rural and domestic scenes into cultural symbols of the Dutch Republic, often with underlying themes of morality and social commentary.

Slight age cracking, minimal areas of retouching, some bowing to the center of the panel and abrasion at upper edge.