Gabriël Metsu (1629–1667) was a Dutch painter of history paintings, still lifes, portraits and exquisite genre works. He was "a highly eclectic artist, who did not adhere to a consistent style, technique, or one type of subject for long periods." Only 14 of his 133 works are dated. Gabriel Metsu was the son of Jacques Metsu (c. 1588-March 1629) a tapestry worker and painter, originally from Hainault, who lived most of his days at Leiden. In 1625 he married Jacomijntje Garniers (c. 1590 – September 1651), the widow of a painter with 3 children of her own. It is not known when and where Gabriel was baptized; most likely in a Catholic hidden church but the baptismal records did not survive. Gabriel grew up on Lange Mare and his stepfather, a skipper, must have supported his education, because his mother was a poor midwife. In 1648 Metsu was registered among the first members of the painters' guild at Leiden. In 1650 he ceased to subscribe. Metsu was possibly trained in Utrecht by the Catholic painters Nicolaus Knüpfer and Jan Weenix. ...According to Jacobus Houbraken, Metsu was taught by Gerard Dou, though prior to about 1653 his influence is not apparent. Around 1653-4, Metsu began placing his figures in domestic interiors and specialized in genre scenes on small panels. Old people were among Metsu's favorite thematic borrowings from Dou during his first years in Amsterdam. Metsu often painted young (single) women who either feed pets, sold goods at market (fruit, vegetables, fish, poultry, or meat) or were grocery-shopping themselves for these things. Houbraken ends his biography with the comment that he was "of impeccable reputation", but he may have meant this ironically. Often, the subject of a Metsu painting was based on a popular emblem from an emblem book. This can give the painting a double meaning, such as in The Poultry seller, 1662, showing an old man offering a rooster to a young girl in a symbolic..." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabri%C3%ABl_Metsu) undefined

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