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| Pieter de Hooch Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting c. 1663-65 Metropolitan Museum |
In Pieteer de Hooch's 17th-century Dutch interior, the wall treatment is the feature that first captured my attention. According to curators at the Metropolitan Museum the walls of this room are covered with tooled and gilded leather panels, creating a sort of apotheosis of the the very concept of wallpaper. A similar painting by de Hooch below, also now at the Met, was accepted as a Vermeer for decades, until reassigned by scholars in the middle of the 20th century.
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| Pieter de Hooch The Visit c. 1657 Metropolitan Museum |
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| Pieter de Hooch Figures in a Garden c. 1663-65 Rijksmuseum |
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| Pieter de Hooch Dutch Courtyard 1658-60 National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| Pieter de Hooch Courtyard in Delft c. 1656 Royal Collection (Great Britain) |
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| Pieter de Hooch Card Players in a Sunlit Room 1658 Royal Collection (Great Britain) |
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| Pieter de Hooch Interior with Linen Cabinet 1663 Rijksmuseum |
Today's final painting by Pieter de Hooch permits the study of a less expensively-appointed household, one with few reflective surfaces and little optical contrast. Yet effects of light and texture are made to serve the artist with equal forcefulness in this non-aspirational, utilitarian interior.
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| Pieter de Hooch Mother Delousing Child c. 1658-60 Rijksmuseum |