The Poulterer's Shop

This highly refined and finished scene of a poulterer's shop, viewed through a draped, open window, forms part of a rich tradition of meticulously executed works characteristic of the Leiden fijnschilders. Both in style and subject matter it is entirely consistent with the artist's mature output in which he assimilates the technique of his father, Frans van Mieris, as well as a compositional format made popular by Gerrit Dou a generation earlier

The bas-relief featured at the base of the composition, which Van Mieris repeats in a number of other works, is closely related to a design by François Duquesnoy that was earlier borrowed by Gerrit Dou for similar compositions.