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Maria Margaretha La Fargue
The shrimp seller 1776
oil on wood panel
29.9 × 24.6 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by The Andrew & Geraldine Buxton Foundation, 2017
Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
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The shrimp seller
1776
Medium
oil on wood panel
Measurements
29.9 × 24.6 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by The Andrew & Geraldine Buxton Foundation, 2017
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
This panel belongs to a category of patriotic eighteenth-century Dutch painting that celebrates modern Dutch society while harking back to the glories of the seventeenth century. Maria Margaretha La Fargue specialised in such genre scenes that evoked the prosperity and ease of life in The Hague. A cheerful vendor offers her wares of freshly cooked shrimp to the female occupants of an affluent household. This seafood, a traditional symbol of wealth and gluttony in Dutch morality tales depicted in still lifes, is ignored by a well-fed cat who prefers to play idly with an insect on the marble floor.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
The Hague, the Netherlands
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.l.: Maria M. La Fargúe / f: 1776.
Accession Number
2017.454
Department
International Painting
Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Daily Life Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
children (people by age group) domesticity fishmongers Hague, The (inhabited place) Netherlands (nation) peddlers shrimp women (female humans)