A masterful 1758 engraving by Johann Georg Wille, based on a painting by Gabriel Metsu, depicting a young woman preparing game in a kitchen setting.

Johann Georg Wille, a German engraver who spent his career in Paris, produced this work after an original painting by the Dutch master Gabriel Metsu. The print, titled La Cuisinière Hollandoise, demonstrates the technical precision that earned Wille his reputation as a master of the burin. The composition depicts a young woman seated in a kitchen, engaged in the preparation of a meal. She holds a skewer with a small bird, while a hare hangs from a hook in the background, a common motif in Dutch genre scenes of the seventeenth century.

Wille translates the painterly qualities of Metsu into a monochromatic medium through a sophisticated use of line and tone. The engraving captures the textures of the cook's apron, the fur of the game, and the smooth surface of the ceramic bowl with remarkable clarity. The arched frame provides a sense of depth, drawing the viewer into the domestic space. The inclusion of a coat of arms at the base of the print indicates its provenance, as it was commissioned or held within the collection of the Comte de Vence. This work reflects the eighteenth-century European fascination with Dutch Golden Age genre scenes, which were highly sought after by collectors for their depiction of everyday life.

As a printmaker, Wille was known for his ability to replicate the subtle gradations of light found in oil paintings. This specific engraving serves as a record of the original painting, which was part of the royal collections in France. The print remains a study in the translation of colour and light into the rigorous discipline of copperplate engraving. It offers a glimpse into the domestic routines of the past, presented with the formal structure characteristic of mid-eighteenth-century printmaking.