Children with a mousetrap 1660 - 1676

Domenicus van Tol's "Children with a Mousetrap" is an oil on canvas painting that offers a peek into 17th-century Dutch life. Van Tol's choice of oil paint allowed him to create a smooth, almost enameled surface, which helped to give the painting a realistic quality. The layering of oil paint permitted the subtle blending of colors, and the interplay of light and shadow, giving the image depth and volume. The mousetrap itself takes on a strange significance. Was it factory-made, or carefully constructed by a local craftsman? Either way, it would have been a valuable, and relatively expensive object in its time. The cat too, is a tool - a 'mouser', the children's plaything but also a domestic servant. This painting, with its quotidian subject matter and its intimate, domestic setting, blurred the lines between art and everyday life, and continues to offer insight into the social and material world of the Dutch Golden Age.