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Interior with a Woman Washing her Hands

Eglon van der Neer1675

Mauritshuis

Mauritshuis
Den Haag, Netherlands

A lady is washing her hands with water from a silver water jug. She is in a chic brothel – the women in the background are occupied with a customer. Is the woman washing her hands after a customer leaves, or washing them in innocence, to indicate that the sins of the world are not her responsibility?

Along with Schalcken and Verkolje, Van der Neer represents the last generation of Dutch genre painters. They continued in the manner of the genre paintings of their predecessors, but placed more emphasis on refinement and elegance.

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  • Title: Interior with a Woman Washing her Hands
  • Creator: Neer, Eglon van der
  • Date Created: 1675
  • Physical Dimensions: h49.2 cm x w39.6 cm
  • Provenance: Seger Tierens, The Hague; sale The Hague, 23 July 1743 (Lugt 582), no. 128 (610 guilders); Hendrik van der Vugt, Amsterdam; sale Amsterdam, 27 April 1745 (Lugt 618), no. 14 (for 501 guilders to De Bos); Johan van der Linden van Slingelandt; sale Dordrecht, 22 August 1785 (Lugt 3936), no. 289 (for 2,400 guilders to Cremer); Thomas Theodore Cremer; sale Rotterdam, 16 April 1816 (Lugt 8862), no. 79 (for 2,500 guilders to Lafontaine); sale Paris, 28 May-2 June 1821 (Lugt 10046), no. 57; William Thomas Beckford, Fonthill Abbey (near Bath); sale London (Phillips), 10 October 1823 (Lugt 10519), no. 280 (430 pounds and 10 shillings); sale London (Phillips), 29 June 1830 (Lugt 12421), no. 76 (225 pounds); Francis Heusch, London by 1833; possibly Lord Northwick; sale Thirlestane House, Cheltenham (Phillips), 26 July 1859 (Lugt 25025), no. 1717; Alfred de Rothschild, London; Victor de Rothschild, London; sale London (Sotheby’s), 19-22 April 1937, no. 13 (for 800 pounds to art dealers S. and R. Rosenberg, London); Fritz Mannheimer, Amsterdam, until 1940; bought by Mühlmann, 1940, for 20,000 guilders; Dienststelle Mühlmann, The Hague; restituted to the States of the Netherlands on 29 March 1946; Dutch Art Heritage Foundation (Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit), on loan to the Mauritshuis, 1948-1960 (inv. no. NK 3116); transferred, 1960
  • Type: painting; oil
  • Medium: panel
Mauritshuis

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