# The Anglers

- By: Nicolaas Verkolje (Delft, 1673–1746)
- Date: c. 1744
- Medium: panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: depth 4 cm
- Credit line: Purchase made possible by an anonymous bequest
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-5040--0a057fb4296ba4c2bc13541845e47826)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/c4e4ec0eaa7577560d76c6a39c760641.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Gotcha! Both the men and the women gesture in the direction of the float lying on its side. But who is being hooked here? The ambiguous meaning of this innocentlooking scene will not have escaped the 18th-century viewer. In those days, fishing and catching birds, the subject of the accompanying painting (also on view on this wall), were well-known metaphors for making love.