Artwork
Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman
Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Gabriel Metsu. It dates from 1662 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Technique & Style
Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, a support typical of seventeenth-century Dutch cabinet pictures.
Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, a support typical of seventeenth-century Dutch cabinet pictures. The work is modest in scale, measuring 29 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width, a format suited to close, intimate viewing. Its classification as a genre scene reflects Metsu's handling of an everyday narrative moment, here depicting a woman, a boy, and an apple as the focal motif of a quiet act of theft.
The small panel surface would have permitted the fine, controlled brushwork associated with Dutch genre painting of this period, allowing precise rendering of figures and interior detail within a compact composition.
The painting is held by the Statens Museum for Kunst, which houses the work in its collection.
History & Provenance
Gabriel Metsu created the painting Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman in 1662. Executed in oil paint on a panel, the work measures 29 cm in height and 21.5 cm in width. The piece is currently held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
No specific details regarding the original commission, the identity of the first patron, or the intermediate ownership chain are provided in the available records.
Overview
Gabriel Metsu’s 1662 oil on canvas, Boy Stealing an Apple from a Sleeping Woman, exemplifies the Dutch Golden Age’s genre‑painting tradition. The work measures modestly and is part of the Statens Museum for Kunst’s collection. It captures a quiet domestic moment rendered with meticulous detail, typical of Mets’ late output.
Subject & Meaning
A young boy in a blue coat reaches for an apple placed in a bowl on a table, while an elderly woman in a black dress lies reclined with eyes closed, appearing asleep. The juxtaposition of the boy’s furtive gesture and the woman’s oblivious slumber suggests a subtle moral narrative about temptation and deceit in everyday life.
Artist & collection
Artist
Gabriël Metsu (1629–1667) was a Dutch painter of history paintings, still lifes, portraits, and genre works.
