women-artists
The Proposition
by Judith Leyster (1609-1660)
Year:1631
Collection:Mauritshuis The Hague
Medium:Oil on canvas
Size:30.9 × 24.2 cm (12 3/16 × 9 1/2 in.)
About this artwork
A remarkable genre scene depicting a young woman focused on her sewing while a man offers her coins, making an unwanted proposition. Leyster's composition masterfully contrasts the woman's concentrated absorption in her work with the man's interruption. The dramatic lighting emphasizes the woman's face and hands while leaving the man partially in shadow, clearly indicating the painting's moral perspective. As the first woman member of Haarlem's painters' guild, Leyster created genre scenes that offered sympathetic portrayals of women's experiences, differentiating her work from male contemporaries who often treated similar subjects more salaciously.
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