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Van der Neer has infused this panel with a rarefied level of elegance and refinement seldom witnessed in Dutch genre painting. A classicising feature is the richly ornamented mantelpiece with Corinthian columns. The painter renders a tempestuous exchange between background figures in an emotionally charged manner as a maid forcefully prevents a young man from approaching her unkempt mistress. This background, stage-like scene amplifies the action of the sartorially splendid lady in the foreground, who washes her hands with the assistance of a boy dressed in a French pages outfit, holding a sumptuous silver basin and ewer.
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