Interior with Women beside a Linen Cupboard
Pieter de Hooch, 1663
This domestic scene by Pieter de Hooch shows two women putting linen away in a large oak cupboard inlaid with ebony, standing to the right of a room. They may be a mistress and her maid, or a mother and daughter; differences in dress and posture suggest a relationship between them. The household's wealth shows in the marquetry furniture, a Delft earthenware bowl on top of the cupboard, and the classical sculpture above the doorframe. This refinement is paired with the clean, precise handling typical of the artist, who builds depth through successive planes: an open door leading to another room and, beyond it, a street lined with houses. In the doorway a small child, dressed in skirts, plays with a kolf stick, an early form of hockey; the square white collar reveals the child is a boy. The plainness of the everyday scene may conceal a moral message about order and virtue in the home, though this reading is debated.
- Painter
- Pieter de Hooch
- Date
- 1663
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 70 × 76 cm
- Museum
- Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam
- Genre
- genre art
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