An Evening School

An elderly man in a cap trims the wick of a candle on a brass stand, lighting a table where a child bends over an open book. Behind them, a young girl and another child lean in, and a lantern glows in the shadowed background. Warm light falls on faces and hands against a near-black ground, in the style of Dutch candlelight painting.

Look closer: A small lantern glows in the far right shadow, and a face peers from the dark upper right.

Artist

Gerrit Dou

Date

ca. 1655–57

Medium

Oil on wood

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3425 × 3800 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Lillian M. Ellis, 1940