[57524] Manchester Art Gallery : Kitchen interior with a man bringing fish for sal

Manchester Art Gallery.

Kitchen interior with a man bringing fish for sale.

By Hendrik Sorgh (1610-1670).

Oil on canvas, 1657.

 

The housewife on the left tells off one of her maids, who has let the fish seller into the house. His visit disrupts the orderly preparation of the meal and the scene is one of disarray, symbolising worldly concern: a bucket has toppled over, spilling all its contents, and a cat takes the opportunity to steal some fish. Sorgh has painted the kitchen in exquisite detail, from the skinned rabbits and plucked birds, to the fresh fruit and everyday pots and pans. He has included some delicate blue and white Delftware, pottery made in Delft that was inspired by imported Chinese porcelain. There is an implication that if the maid is lax in her kitchen duties, she may also be lax in her moral life. Above her chopping board is The Sacrifice of Isaac, a painting about loyalty and obedience. Seventeenth century Dutch literature often referred to lazy and inefficient maids. One interpretation of this painting might therefore be the good and the bad servant, the careless maid contrasted with her industrious counterpart on the right. Sorgh was active in Rotterdam, where he worked not only as an artist, but also as a bargeman in his father's local shipping business, through which he gained detailed knowledge of the fish markets. His father, Maerten Claesz. Rochusse (or Rokes), obtained the soubriquet ‘de Sorch' (‘careful') after the way in which he handled cargo; his son Hendrick had adopted the name by 1633, when it appears on his marriage certificate, and began signing his paintings that way after 1640.

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