One must go to Italy and seek among the early Madonnas to find anything to set beside the sweet Wordsworthian character of this little Dutch girl who feeds the animals.
It was Jan Steen's way to scamp much of every picture; but in every picture you will find one figure that could not be excelled.

Nothing probably could be more slovenly, more hideously unpainted, than, for example, the bed and the guitar-case in the "Sick Woman"-- No.

2246 at the Ryks Museum--opposite page 22.

But I doubt if human skill has ever transcended the painting of the woman's face, or the sheer drawing of her.

Look at her arm and hand--Jan Steen never went wrong with arms and hands.