Special thanks to the Microsoft Corporation for permission to use following biographical information from Microsoft® Encarta 2000:

Gabriel Metsu was a Dutch painter, born in Leiden. Probably a pupil of the Dutch painter Gerrit Dou, he helped found the guild of painters in Leiden in 1648. By 1657 he had settled in Amsterdam. Metsu (Metzu) painted the charming aspects of middle-class Dutch life with consummate taste in color and tone. His works include Mother and Sick Child (1660?, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), Young Woman Composing Music (Mauritshuis, The Hague), and A Visit to the Nursery (1661, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City).

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