# The Hunter's Gift [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [METSU, Gabriel]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 51 x 48 cm ## Commentary The subject of this painting, a young woman sewing who entertains a hunter proffering a dead partridge, constitutes a male—female confrontation that lies at the heart of much of Metsu's imagery throughout his career. Cleverly, the artist has even introduced a contrast between the protagonists' dogs: the lady's lapdog poised on the table stares at the stocky spaniel standing faithfully by its masters side. Clearly, the little statue of Cupid perched on the linen chest behind the hunter and seamstress emphasizes the amorous nature of his offer, but the lustful underpinnings of the hunter's gesture would have been readily apparent to seventeenth-century viewers. In contemporary Dutch prints and texts birds refer to lasciviousness and the Dutch verb 'vogelen' \(to bird\) to sexual intercourse. Thus by offering the bird to the young woman, Metsu's hunter is actually propositioning her. ## Related artworks - [A Musical Party]() - [A Woman Seated at a Table and a Man Tuning a Violin]() - [A Young Woman Composing Music]() - [Breakfast]() - [Dead Cock]() - [Lady Seated in a Window]() - [Man and Woman Sitting at the Virginal]() - [Man Writing a Letter]() - [Portrait of Jan Jacobsz. Hinlopen and His Family]() - [Portrait of the Artist with His Wife Isabella de Wolff in a Tavern]() - [Soldier Paying a Visit to a Young Lady]() - [Tavern Scene]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()