I love discovering images that make history feel more like real life. In this somewhat risqué painting of a lady taking her stockings off, you can clearly see the indentations left from the garters that had held her stockings up all day. How wonderful! Just like our version of a sock line.
“Woman at her Toilet” by Jan Havicksz Steen, 1655-60. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
This is why wandering through unfamiliar museums and finding unknown painters is so wonderful – you notice so much more when the painting is life size and right in front of your face, instead of just another image on a screen.
