Willem van Mieris was a leader of highly finished genre pieces, a tradition begun by Gerrit Dou and continued by Willem's father, Frans van Mieris the Elder, in Leiden. After studying with his father, van Mieris entered the Leiden guild, where he served as the hoofman until 1708, as well as the dean of the guild. In 1736, he founded a drawing Academy in Leiden with fellow artists Jacob Toorenvliet and Karl de Moor, and functioned as its director until 1736. He continued to paint genre scenes and portraits throughout this period until the late 1730's, when his eyesight began to fail.

The 1820's critic John Smith wrote of the "extraordinary delicacy and finish" in Mieris' paintings. Our picture, Domestic Virtue, exhibits this en...