The Story
The following is an incomplete list of paintings by Pieter de Hooch, a Dutch Golden Age painter, that are generally accepted as autograph by Peter C. Sutton and other sources. The list is more or less in order of creation, starting from around 1648 when Pieter de Hooch began painting on his own in Delft. Later he moved to Amsterdam and his interiors seem somewhat grander in style. Most of his works are genre scenes involving daily life, but he also made at least one religious allegory.
Created in 1663 during the 1650-1700 period, this work belongs firmly within the power & politics tradition. Pieter de Hooch worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in height 60 cm x width 45.7 cm, measuring height: 60; width: 45.7, the surface rewards close looking. Pieter de Hooch builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
