Sunday thread,
1. In all likelihood this painting by Nicolaas Juweel Senior represents professional paper cutting artist Elisabeth Rijberg of Rotterdam at work on one of her intricate creations with an admirer peering through the window.

2. There are 3 contemporary sources testifying to her activities. According to the earliest source, 1698, she made "artful war ships on calm and stormy seas and yachts; royal and princely palaces and others; also trees, vistas and portraits both two-dimensional and in relief."

3. She asked and received enormous sums of money for her art: 600 guilders a piece wasn't unusual. If you wanted to see her creations she charged an entrance fee, says one source.

4. Two of the three contemporary sources mention an advertisement hanging above her door (in Dutch and in French!) that shows she wasn't exactly modest, the text being (in translation):
"I cut in paper all that pleases the eye
or what a whitty brain reproduces after art ...

5. ... "Although bitchy envy growls with open jaws
my art will not easily be overlooked."

All the more ironic that none of her paper cuttings have survived!

6. This painting in a British collection looks remarkably like the two previous ones by Juweel and may also represent Elisabeth Rijberg.