SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Nicolas Maes’s work moves successively from religious scenes to genre scenes, then to portraiture, in which he tended to specialise from around 1660. In works from his early period, pronounced chiaroscuro, warm reds and browns, deep shadows and heavy impasto structure a painting with a dramatic tonality. His genre scenes are associated with a form of Rembrandtism, characterised by a warm and robust technique; their subjects, often familiar or anecdotal, are not their principal distinguishing feature. In some of these scenes, objects are invested with symbolic or allegorical meaning beyond the representation of an interior or a familiar situation.
Several genre scenes held in European museums provide examples: The Eavesdropper (1657), oil on canvas, 93 × 112 cm, is in the Dordrecht Museum; The Old Lacemaker (1655) is at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and The Idle Servant (1655) at the National Gallery in London. Among the religious works is Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1653), an oil painting on canvas held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Disobedient Drummer, dated around 1655, is held at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. A Self-Portrait of 1685, painted in oil on canvas and measuring 63 × 50 cm, belongs to the Dordrechts Museum. In Dordrecht, Maes holds the rank of lieutenant in the city’s civic guard.
This profile brings together identity references for Nicolaes Maes and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Lempertz · Kornfeld · Genève Enchères · DognyAuction · Dobiaschofsky · Schuler
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Pen in bister, washed with a brush in bister and red, on laid paper
Catalogue period : 2024-09-12
Published result : 10000 CHF
Hammer price, excluding fees
Estimate : CHF 7500
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Oil on canvas
Portrait des Francisco Lopes Suasso
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2022-11-19
Published result : 47880 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 30000
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Oil on canvas
Portrait d'homme
huile sur toile
Catalogue period : 2021-04-28
Published result : 8000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 2000–3000
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Oil on canvas
Portrait d’enfant
huile sur toile
Catalogue period : 2020-06-17
Published result : 2200 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 2000–3000
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Oil on canvas
Bildnis eines Herrn Bildnis einer Dame
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2018-05-16
Published result : 14880 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 15000
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Oil on canvas
Umkreis
Öl auf Leinwand
Catalogue period : 2018-05-04
Published result : 6500 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 9500
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Oil on canvas
Bildnis eines Jungen mit Hund und Vogel
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2015-11-14
Published result : 52080 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 40000
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Oil on canvas
Portrait d'un homme en buste
huile sur toile
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗These references are shown separately because of their attribution or lot composition. Each record states the reason.
Tusche auf Vergé-Papier
Attribué à Nicolaes Maes — zugeschrieben Fünf stehende Figuren
Tusche auf Vergé-Papier
zugeschrieben
Catalogue period : 2026-03-19
Attributed
Published result : 7000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 7000–9000
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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