Much like the paintings nearby from The Leiden Collection, these prints focus on 17th-century Dutch women, here shown in moments of contemplation relating to the pursuits of music and literature. While the print on the left depicts an unidentified girl playing the clavichord, the work at right portrays the accomplished poet and glass engraver Maria Tesselschade (1594–1649). Tesselschade and her sister Anna Roemers Visscher (1583–1651) were the only two female members of an influential intellectual circle of writers and humanists active near the Dutch city of Amsterdam. Printmaker, publisher, and art collector Cornelis Ploos van Amstel created these prints by skillfully reproducing drawings made more than a century earlier. Along with his assistants, Ploos van Amstel used a unique printmaking technique that imitated the drawn line by transferring and printing images in color from multiple plates. The relatively affordable prints were distributed widely, reflecting the popularity of 17th-century Dutch art well into the 18th century.