GERARD DAWE (1613-1675)
Known Dutch artist, recognized master of genre painting. When studied he spent several years in Rembrandt's workshop in Leyden. During his life-time he enjoyed enormous popularity, which sparkled again in the middle and in the second half of the 19th century. Dawe's works influenced greatly many Russian masters of genre painting. A diverse collection of his genre scenes and portraits is kept in the Hermitage. Smooth, carefully finished pictorial surface, skills to convey the texture of different subject with illusionist's precision are inherent to the artist' creative manner. Through the seeming every-day appearance of scenes, depicted by Dawe, often showed moralizing intonations partucularly valuable in the burgher environment. So, for example, the mouse-trap with a mouse inside in the hands of the young artist and the bunch of carrots the maid-servant is peeling, served as a kind of a warning to young people, reminding them about the necessity to struggle with sinful pleasures capable to lead a person astray.