Family Group in an Interior

Quiringh Gerritsz. van Brekelenkam

about 1658–1660

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A family group is gathered around a table in an interior room with a checkered floor. Several figures are seated and standing, engaged in conversation or activity. Just finishing a Sunday meal, the members of this well-to-do family may be getting ready to return to church. The mother hands a prayer book to the younger of the boys, and the little girl holds her freshly starched cap and fan. Quiringh Gerritsz. van Brekelenkam appears to have combined a family portrait and a genre scene with a moralizing message. Van Brekelenkam emphasized the moral message by placing a large, framed landscape in the background above the mantel. As the family displays domestic virtues, the painting within the painting shows a couple gazing at a ship at sea under a dark sky illuminated by a shaft of light. The pai