The Life and Art of Gabriel Metsu Gabriel Metsu was a painter who moved through many different subjects. He did not settle on one way of working or one type of scene for long. His hands were as comfortable with history paintings and portraits as they were with still lifes and genre works. This refusal to stick to a single path made his output varied and difficult to pin down to a single method. He was born in Leiden in 1629. His father, Jacques Metsu, worked as a painter and a designer of textiles. His mother, Jacquemijn Garniers, was a midwife. These early surroundings in Leiden provided t…