# The Bird Seller

- By: Willem van Mieris (Dutch, 1662–1747)
- Date: c. 1700–1710
- Medium: black and white chalk on blue paper, laid down on brown paper
- Classification: Drawing
- Dimensions: Sheet: 36.4 x 28.9 cm (14 5/16 x 11 3/8 in.); Matted: 41 x 31.8 x 0.3 cm (16 1/8 x 12 1/2 x 1/8 in.); Image: 26 x 22.3 cm (10 1/4 x 8 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.10)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/2019.10/2019.10_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In this market scene, the Dutch artist Willem van Mieris portrayed a man and woman in a poultry shop who negotiate over the price of a bird. A curtain is pulled aside above to reveal the scene—as if the viewer sees something in secret—while a faux relief panel below them portrays amorous putti. Market scenes portraying a man and a woman often carried amorous or lascivious connotations in 17th-century Holland, undertones that were acknowledged and enjoyed by the middle-class patrons who purchased such works.