Mother’s treasure 

Jozef Israëls painted this image, Mother’s treasure, using oil on canvas, a common enough combination. But notice how the material qualities of the paint and the composition of the picture itself, actually serve to elevate the status of the knitted garment that the mother is making. The interior is dark, and rendered with a loose, almost gestural technique. All the more remarkable, then, that the yarn and needles in the mother’s hands are relatively crisp in their depiction. By making the tools of her labor legible in this way, Israëls makes a social point. He asks us to consider not only the sentimentality of motherhood, but also the work involved in making a home, the long hours of knitting needed to keep a family warm. What might seem at first glance to be simply a genre painting, is in fact an argument for the value of ordinary work. The value of craft in the construction of domestic life.