Portrait of Mary Stuart II

Caspar Netscher could paint satin better than almost anyone in seventeenth century Holland. His small, polished pictures of elegant women, music lessons and quiet family scenes are full of gleaming silk, oriental rugs and soft light. He was born in Heidelberg or Prague and trained first in Arnhem, then in Deventer with Gerard ter Borch, whose most gifted pupil he became. After a spell in Bordeaux he settled in The Hague in 1662, where he turned increasingly to portraits and found patrons at the court of William III. Two of his sons, Constantijn and Theodorus, also became painters. The Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum both hold his work. Scenes such as A Lady Teaching a Child to Read and A Music Lesson show his calm, intimate style at its best.