Rating and value of works, drawings, paintings by Gabriel Metsu

If you own a work of art by or after Gabriel Metsu, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will be happy to offer you their appraisal services. Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its current market value. Then, if you wish to sell your work, we'll guide you towards the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

Rating and value of the artist Gabriel Metsu

Gabriel Metsu was a Dutch painter who was highly regarded by his contemporaries in the 17th century. A leading figure of the "Golden Age", relatively few works attributed to him can be found on the art market, but they are highly prized and well priced. Most of his work is in painting, but there are also a few watercolor drawings. Works by Gabriel Metsu fetch between €500 and €1,407,524. A genre scene depicting a woman pouring beer for a young man smoking in a tavern sold for €884,350 in 2007.

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious

Artist's style and technique

In the early 1650s, in keeping with the Calvinist reform in the United Provinces, Gabriel Metsu abandoned religious scenes to devote himself to genre painting, which was far more attractive to commissioners. His commissions were smaller, often for bourgeois interiors. He devoted himself in particular to exploring the daily life of the Dutch bourgeoisie, and captured the lives of his patrons with great acuity. Metsu had previously followed in the footsteps of Rembrandt and other Baroque artists, borrowing from them the chiaroscuro initiated by Caravaggio, but he soon turned his attention to the masters of genre painting.

His later works are therefore reminiscent of the compositions of Gérard Dou, one of the so-called "painters of the fine manner", with the recurring motif of the window superimposed on the scene. He was also influenced by other artists from the Delft and Amsterdam centers, such as Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch, and often took women and their Apollonian pastimes, such as music and reading, as his themes.

The life of Gabriel Metsu 

Born in Leiden, Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) was the son of a Flemish upholsterer and painter, and is said to have apprenticed in the studio of the distinguished Gérard Dou, genre painter and pioneer of the Leiden school. Metsu's talent was soon noticed in the United Provinces and, in 1648, he became one of the first and youngest members of the Guild of Saint-Luc, an institution bringing together sculptors and painters in Leiden. In 1650, he seems to have left Leiden for Utrecht, home to a colossal Caravaggesque scene. He worked with a painter who specialized in religious and genre scenes.

Gabriel Metsu left for Amsterdam for good in 1654, at which point he turned his attention to genre scenes. Nevertheless, he slipped out of the grip of the "fine painters" movement, whose main characteristic was to paint modest-sized compositions with a remarkable attention to detail.

Gabriel Metsu's imprint on his era

Metsu achieved such renown between the 18th and 19th centuries that some experts inadvertently attributed to him works by Vermeer, who fell into oblivion during this period and was only rediscovered in the second half of the 19th century by Théophile Thoré. Like Vermeer, Gabriel Metsu is renowned for the calm, soothing and poetic atmosphere of his genre scenes, which he renders with an exceptional mastery of light and chromatic contrasts. Gabriel Metsu died relatively young, at the age of thirty-eight, and his brief career left him time to train only one disciple, who is still known today. He remains an important figure old Northern School paintings.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Gabriel Metsu signs his canvases with his full name or monogram (M.G) and sometimes dates them. 

Knowing the value of a work

If you happen to own a work by Gabriel Metsu, don't hesitate to request a free appraisal using the form on our website. A member of our team of experts and auctioneers will contact you promptly to provide you with an estimate of the value of your work, as well as any relevant information about it. If you're thinking of selling your work, our specialists will also be on hand to help you find alternative ways of selling it at the best possible price.