The Sick Child
Also titled Het zieke kind
Gabriël Metsu (Leiden, 1629–1667)
c. 1664 - c. 1666
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 32.2 cm x width 27.2 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
In 1663, the plague ravaged Amsterdam, claiming one in ten lives. Around this time, Metsu painted this picture of a mother comforting her sick child. Their posture evokes a pieta: the Virgin Mary with the body of Jesus on her lap. The painting on the wall, depicting Christ on the cross, serves as a poignant reminder of that suffering.
