Peasant Family in an Interior

Genre painting, which depicted scenes from everyday life, developed in France in the 17th Century. The Le Nain brothers were best known for their genre portraits. This piece is one of their works, and shows a peasant family sat around a table: the father, the mother and six children, along with a cat and a dog. A fire is lit in the background, where two of the children are sat. The four other children are near their parents, with the child in the center playing on a flute. Food is represented by the presence of bread, wine, salt and a ladle on the floor.