Maulstick

This painting by Adriaen van Ostade shows a mahlstick in use in the artist's studio

Georg Friedrich Kersting's studio portrait of Caspar David Friedrich (1819) shows the painter holding a maulstick.

A mahlstick, or maulstick, is a stick with a soft leather or padded head used by painters to support the hand with which they hold their paintbrush. The word derives from the Dutch maalstok 'painter's stick', from malen 'to paint'.

In 16th- through 19th-century paintings of artists, including self-portraits, the maulstick is often depicted as part of the painter's equipment.

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  William-Adolphe Bouguereau holding painting implements

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  Self portrait of Caterina van Hemessen

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  Self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola

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  Portrait of Eva Gonzalès, by Édouard Manet

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  Detail of Vermeer's Art of Painting with artist using mahlstick

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.