A Housewife in an inner Courtyard Cleaning Fish 1639 - 1649

Hendrik Potuyl painted ‘A Housewife in an inner Courtyard Cleaning Fish’ in oil on wood. While undated, the scene evokes the domestic sphere in a way that was typical for its time, yet it also tells a story of labor, gender, and class. We see a woman, presumably a housewife, engrossed in the task of cleaning fish. Notice the setting: not in a grand dining room, but in an inner courtyard, surrounded by the tools of her trade. There’s a sense of everyday reality here. The vegetables scattered on the ground, the cat lurking nearby—all these details humanize the scene, grounding it in the realities of daily life. What does it mean to depict a woman engaged in such labor? Is this a celebration of the domestic sphere, or a subtle commentary on the roles assigned to women in society? Does this resonate with your own experiences of daily labor, of maintaining a home, of feeding a family? The quiet dignity of this woman’s work invites a moment of reflection on the often unseen labor that sustains us.