Mother Lacing Her Bodice beside a Cradle

In this mid-seventeenth-century Dutch interior, Pieter de Hooch places a woman beside a wicker cradle as she fastens her red bodice after nursing her baby. She smiles toward the cradle, which lies outside the viewer's field of sight, so the infant is only suggested. Around her unfolds a tidy bedroom: a recessed bed with blue and white striped curtains, a brass warming pan and a red skirt hanging on the panelled wall, and a table under a high window with shutters, where a candlestick and a jug rest. A dog stretches lazily beside her. In the background, an open door reveals a girl standing with her back to us, facing the front door, where sunlight pours in across the tiled floor. The scene is a fine example of the domestic middle-class life that fascinated De Hooch, in which order, cleanliness and carefully controlled light create a calm image. The painting, now in Berlin, passed through several private collections in the nineteenth century before entering the museum.

Painter

Pieter de Hooch

Date

1661

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

92 × 100 cm

Museum

Bode Museum, Berlin

Genre

genre art

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