The kitchen maid allows a man to top up her drink, while a monkey – the ultimate symbol of unbridled animal lust – takes a peep under her skirts. The old man in the door raises his finger in warning: behave yourself! A 17th-century observer would immediately see the sexual connotation in this painting. Pieter van Roestraten was a student of Frans Hals, and also his son-in-law – he was married to Hals’ daughter Ariaentje.