Young Woman Chopping Onions

Louis Surugue

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The print reproduces (in reverse) Dou's small panel, dated 1646, in Buckingham Palace. Along with the young woman's glance, several motifs tease the viewer. The bird and the open jug symbolize male and female forms, which join together in a manner demonstrated by the mortar and pestle (next to an erect candlestick). The empty birdcage implies that virtue has flown the coop. Onions have been considered aphrodisiacs since ancient times. The French verse captures the spirit of Dou's picture by speaking for the viewer, who tells the kitchen maid that, although she surely knows how to make a tempting ragout, his appetite is for her.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art