# Young Woman Peeling Apples [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MAES, Nicolaes]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on wood, 55 x 46 cm ## Commentary Paintings of women peeling apples, scraping parsnips, and otherwise preparing simple foods were one of several ways in which the Dutch endorsed an ideal of womanhood in middle-class society. The image of a homemaker, content with her modest and diligent life, had moral and religious overtones. This theme can be found, for example, in paintings by Gabriel <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/m/metsu/ladyseat.html'\)" href="/html/m/metsu/ladyseat.html">Metsu</a>, Pieter <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/h/hooch/3/41hooch.html'\)" href="/html/h/hooch/3/41hooch.html">de Hooch,</a> and <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/bisschop/cornelis/apples.html'\)" href="/html/b/bisschop/cornelis/apples.html">Cornelis Bisschop.</a>From the 1650s the motif and similar domestic subjects became fairly commonplace. ## Related artworks - [A Woman Spinning]() - [Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael]() - [Admiral Jacob Binkes]() - [Apostle Thomas]() - [Christ before Pilate]() - [Christ Blessing the Children]() - [Eavesdropper with a Scolding Woman]() - [Ingena Rotterdam, Betrothed of Admiral Jacob Binkes]() - [Old Woman Dozing]() - [Old Woman Peeling Apples]() - [Old Woman Saying Grace]() - [Portrait of a Boy as Adonis]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()