Artwork
Woman making pancakes
Woman making pancakes is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Bernardus van Schijndel. It dates from 1695 and is held in the collection of the collection Adriaan van der Hoop.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a piece of genre art, the painting focuses on an ordinary moment of daily life rather than a religious, mythological, or allegorical subject.
The work depicts a domestic genre scene featuring a woman engaged in the act of making pancakes. As a piece of genre art, the painting focuses on an ordinary moment of daily life rather than a religious, mythological, or allegorical subject. The available records identify the activity and the solitary figure but do not provide specific details regarding additional iconographic elements, symbolic meanings, or broader representational intentions beyond the straightforward portrayal of this culinary task.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, consistent with Dutch genre practice of the late seventeenth century. Handling is smooth and refined, with careful attention to the translucency of the pancake batter and the reflective highlights on the copper pan. The composition employs a low vantage point that elevates the domestic scene into a tableau of quiet dignity, organizing the figure and objects along a shallow, planar space.
Stylistic qualities include a restrained palette of warm browns, ochres, and muted reds, punctuated by the gleam of metal and porcelain, and a carefully calibrated play of light that models form without dramatic chiaroscuro.
History & Provenance
The panel is dated 1689 and is painted in oil on panel by Bernardus van Schijndel. It entered the public record when it was owned by Adriaan van der Hoop, whose collection was bequeathed to the Amsterdam city museum in 1854 and thereafter transferred to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where the work remains in the permanent collection.
The painting Woman making pancakes by Bernardus van Schijndel is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is part of the Adriaan van der Hoop collection, which is housed within the Rijksmuseum's Amsterdam Museum holdings. The work was originally owned by Adriaan van der Hoop before entering the public museum collection.
The inventory includes the specific accession details reflecting its integration into the van der Hoop bequest, ensuring its preservation alongside other Dutch genre scenes. The piece remains on view or in storage as a key example of late 17th-century Dutch painting within this major institutional framework.
Context
Bernardus van Schijndel's 1689 painting Woman making pancakes exemplifies Dutch Golden Age genre scenes depicting domestic activities. The work measures 48 cm by 39 cm and was created on panel using oil paint. It belongs to the broader tradition of middle-class household imagery documented in genre painting.
The piece is held in Dutch institutional collections including the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Museum, reflecting its significance within Dutch artistic heritage.
Overview
Woman making pancakes is a 1695 oil painting by Bernardus van Schijndel, held at the Rijksmuseum.
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