Interior with a Woman Feeding a Parrot, Known as ‘The Parrot Cage’
Also titled Interieur met een vrouw die een papegaai voert, beter bekend als ‘De papegaaienkooi’
Jan Havicksz. Steen (Leiden, ca. –1679)
c. 1660 - c. 1670
- Medium
- canvas, panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 50 cm x width 40 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
This scene bursts with life. On the left, a woman is frying oysters, while a mischievous boy tries to feed a cat. On the right, two men are playing a game of trictrac (a kind of backgammon). Through his use of colour, Steen directed attention to the woman in the middle giving a parrot a biscuit. Thanks to the light falling on her and her green and violet gown, she stands out against the other, more drably painted figures.
