De Hooch Research Articles

Pieter de Hooch’s window shutter with the Habsburg Emperor Charles V (1661)

This article deals with Pieter de Hooch’s enigmatic painting Woman holding a basket with beans in a garden of 1661 (Kunstmuseum, Basel), and, more specifically, with the identity of the man depicted on the window shutter of the building in the foreground of the painting. The author argues that this portrait, which was hidden behind a layer of paint for a long time and only uncovered sometime between 1913-1927, represents the Emperor Charles V, whose portrait still decorates many buildings in the Netherlands. It is also argued that the building in the background of the painting can be typified as a ‘hofje’ or almshouse, and that its architecture resembles that of the Leiden Eva van Hoogeveenshofje, built by the architect Arent van ‘s-Gravesande in the 1650s. This suggests that De Hooch did not only paint locations in Delft and Amsterdam, but also in Leiden. The Dutch Republic’s seventeenth-century ‘hofjes’ were renowned, eliciting praise from foreign visitors, not only because of the way the Dutch Calvinist elite took care of the needy but also because of their superb architecture that enhanced the beauty of the Republic’s cities. Interestingly, De Hooch painted a servant girl in the garden of the almshouse, which at first may seem incongruous with an institution intended for the poor. However, as will be shown, residents of almshouses in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic were not as poor as is generally thought. Some were even quite well-off and did indeed keep servants. In fact, some contemporaries even likened the Dutch almshouses to palaces. The portrait of the emperor on the window shutter may thus have criticised this type of ‘poor relief’ and could well have been intended to bring out the resemblance between the ‘hofje’ and an emperor’s palace. The word ‘hofje ‘ after all means ‘small court’. As such an overt criticism is unique in De Hooch’s oeuvre, it may have been the artist himself who blotted the emperor’s portrait out, thus changing the image into a straightforward genre scene. It was precisely this type of scene that was to bring De Hooch some success following his move to Amsterdam in 1660.

Refabulating Domesticity

In the seventeenth century, Dutch artists like De Hooch, Vermeer, and de Witte famously painted interior scenes. These could seem to follow the birth of bourgeois domesticity and the modern sense of intimate, private dwelling. Still, many scholars have pointed out that this realism is deceptive: these interiors are in fact fabulated spaces, at odds with the architectural and social reality of their day. Following Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s opposition between a ‘paranoid’ and a ‘reparative’ reading of cultural artefacts, we could interpret these interiors in a paranoid mode, revealing the oppressive and exploitative social conditions of the so-called Golden Age in which the genre flourished. However, as Sedgwick suggests, such an interpretation can be supplemented by a reparative, more speculative, and creative hermeneutics that recontextualises these cultural artefacts. Such an approach can be aligned with the notion of ‘fictioning’ as developed by David Burrows and Simon O’Sullivan: the exploration of fictional worlds and other possible modes of existence they establish. While they mostly discuss rather outlandish forms of mythopoetic imagination, this text-based essay focuses on ‘fictioning’ the interior as a tool to experiment with the domestic. The essay will follow three artistic concepts: pictorial formalism (focusing on sensations), tropism (focusing on affects), and metalepsis (focusing on characters). In this essay, I explore the ‘impossible’ interior of Emanuel De Witte’s Interior with a Woman at the Virginal (c. 1665), an apparent idyllic scene that nonetheless generates a particularly unsettling atmosphere, as a case study. The painting consists of a complex constellation of places and stories; an assemblage of spaces, objects, and characters that resist their original pictorial and discursive frames. As such, it allows for a reparative, creative approach to the antiquated genre of the interior.

A Parable in Painting: “Room in a Dutch House” and “Woman Reading” by Pieter Janssens Elinga

This article proposes the hypothesis that the paintings “A Room in a Dutch House” (late 1660s — early 1670s) and “Woman Reading” (1660) by Delft artist of genre scenes Pieter Janssens Elinga (1623–1682) are paired and in a mutual dialogue and the New Testament parable is told about Martha and Mary, as a symbol of two worldviews — contemplative and effective, spiritual and material. The proposed assumption is mainly justified by comparing biblical texts (the Gospel of Luke, the Epistle of James and others) with the figurative system of paintings examined and sequentially interpreted in the context of emblematic and Protestant thinking. Thus, upon a detailed and comprehensive examination of the painting “A Room in a Dutch House”, the image of Martha appears to be much more complex and paradoxical than at first glance — the imposition of a peculiar Protestant hierotopy of order on the plot canvas reveals a new meaning to the depicted scene. A study of paintings belonging to the beginning of the 17th century and dedicated to the life of Saints Martha and Mary made it possible to discover on the canvases of Elinga both traditional iconographic motifs and a conscious departure from them. Particular attention is paid to the specifics of the creative method of the master and his connection with the trends of the Delft school of art, especially with the work of Pieter de Hooch. In conditions of shortage of scientific material, this work is of scientific value. Thus, the interpretation proposed in the article turns the biblical parable into a link between the studied canvases.

Far From Home: Looking at A Painting by Pieter De Hooch

Previous articleNext article No AccessFar From Home: Looking at A Painting by Pieter De HoochWilliam E. WallaceWilliam E. Wallace Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Source Volume 35, Number 1/2Fall 2015/Winter 2016 Sponsored by the Bard Graduate Center, New York Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/685628 Views: 264Total views on this site © 2016 by Bard Graduate Center. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Intersection of reality and fiction in art perception: pictorial space, body sway and mental imagery.

BackgroundThe thesis of embodied cognition claims that perception of the environment entails a complex set of multisensory processes which forms a basis for the agent’s potential and immediate actions. However, in the case of artworks, an agent becomes an observer and action turns into a reaction. This raises questions about the presence of embodied or situated cognition involved in art reception.AimsThe study aimed to assess the bodily correlates of perceiving fictional pictorial spaces in the absence of a possibility of an actual physical immersion or manipulation of represented forms.MethodThe subjects were presented with paintings by Vermeer and De Hooch, whilst their body sway and eye movements were recorded. Moreover, test and questionnaires on mental imagery (MRT, VVIQ and OSIQ) were administered.ResultsThree major results were obtained: (1) the degree of pictorial depth did not influence body sway; (2) fixations to distant elements in paintings (i.e. backgrounds) were accompanied by an increase in body sway; and (3) mental rotation test scores correlated positively with body sway.ConclusionsOur results suggest that in certain cases—despite the fictional character of art—observers’ reactions resemble reactions to real stimuli. It is proposed that these reactions are mediated by mental imagery (e.g. mental rotation) that contributes to the act of representing alternative to real artistic spaces.

A Study on ‘Child-Rearing Genre Paintings’ of Pieter de Hooch: The Domestic Ideal of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Middle Class

A Study on ‘Child-Rearing Genre Paintings’ of Pieter de Hooch: The Domestic Ideal of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Middle Class

Vermeer's women: secrets and silence

Centring on the extraordinary Lacemaker from the Musee du Louvre, this beautiful book investigates the subtle and enigmatic paintings by Johannes Vermeer that celebrate the intimacy of the Dutch household. Moments frozen in paint that reveal young women sewing, reading or playing musical instruments, captured in Vermeer's uniquely luminous style, recreate a silent and often mysterious domestic realm, closed to the outside world, and inhabited almost exclusively by women and children. Three internationally recognized experts in the field explain why women engaged in mundane domestic tasks, or in pleasurable pastimes such as music making, writing letters, or adjusting their toilette, comprise some of the most popular Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century. Among the most intriguing of these compositions are those that consciously avoid any engagement with the viewer. Rather than acknowledging our presence, figures avert their gazes or turn their backs upon us; they stare moodily into space or focus intently on the activities at hand. In viewing these paintings, we have the impression that we have stumbled upon a private world kept hidden from casual regard. The ravishingly beautiful paintings of Vermeer are perhaps the most poetic evocations of this secretive world, but other Dutch painters sought to imbue simple domestic scenes with an air of silent mystery, and the book features also works by some of the most important masters of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting, among them Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Nicolaes Maes, and Jan Steen.

An Unknown Painting by Pieter de Hooch

The article discusses a painting Card Game by Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch housed in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, Israel. It describes how the painting came into the museum's possession and how it escaped public and scholarly attention. Then the condition of the painting is addressed. Next the composition of the painting, and apparent changes made are also described. Finally, how the work was attributed to de Hooch and comparison to the artists' known works are described.

Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings

The author describes his change from being a student of mathematics to that of being a painter, after studying with George Grosz. Through Grosz, the author was led to study Brueghel, and the Dutch masters and their art, together with Byzantine mosaics and African sculpture, have remained a major influence in his work. A study of the paintings of De Hooch and Vermeer was also helpful from the point of view of the way those artists were able to control their large shapes, even when disparate elements were included within these shapes. Also, the author describes the influence upon him of examples of Chinese paintings and his method of working with mounted layers of torn papers. Both the similarities as well as the differences to Cubism in his style are described in detail, with the hope that the structural content of his work will be understood and even more valued than its social message.

:Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution

A lavishly illustrated study of the charming genre paintings of Vermeer and his contemporaries The appealing genre paintings of great seventeenth-century Dutch artists-Vermeer, Steen, de Hooch, Dou, and others-have long enjoyed tremendous popularity. this comprehensive book explores the evolution of genre painting throughout the Dutch Golden Age, beginning in the early 1600's and continuing through the opening years of the next century. Wayne Franits, a well-known scholar of Dutch genre painting, offers a wealth of information about these works as well as about seventeenth-century Dutch culture, its predilections, and its prejudices. The author approaches genre paintings from a variety of perspectives, examining their reception among contemporary audiences and setting the works in political, cultural, and economic context. The works emerge as distinctly conventional images, Franits shows, as genre artists continually replicated specific styles, motifs, and a surprisingly restricted number of themes over the course of several generations. With hundreds of illustrations and a full representation of major artists and cities where genre painting flourished, this book will delight students, scholars, and general readers alike.

17世紀オランダ絵画の中の建築空間

This research aims to clarify the expression of architectural space in relation to the daily lifestyle in the Netherlands by studying the themes and elements that appeared in the paintings from the 17th century. It is because the pictures of this time, which can be referred to as having built the foundations genre paintings and be known and described "golden age" the foundations of paintings expression of architectural space, are realistic. We choose four painters (Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt van Raijin) and analyze 125 paintings.

:An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art

Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction I. Karel van Mander: The Language of Space Entrance for the Eyes Images in Conversation Into the Seventeenth Century Ideas of Order II. Gerard Dou: The Reconfigured Emblem Foreground and Background An Art of Surfaces Drape and Curtain The Space of Emblems Uses of the Background Scene Pictures within Pictures An Empty Room III. Nicolaes Maes: Space as Domestic Territory The Eavesdroppers Pictorial Space at Mid-Century Re-creating the Dutch Interior Mistresses and Maids Diligence and Desire IV. Pieter De Hooch: Indoors and Out Figures in a Courtyard Home and Cityscape Masculine and Feminine Spaces Privacy and Community Exchanges at the Doorway Public Interiors Notes Bibliography Index

:Vermeer and the Delft School

Seventeenth-century Delft has traditionally been viewed as a quaint town whose artists painted scenes of domestic life. This important book revises that image, showing that the small but vibrant Dutch city produced fine examples of all the major arts, including luxury goods and sophisticated paintings for the court at The Hague and for patrician collectors in Delft itself. The book traces the history and culture of Delft from the 1200s through the lifetime of the city's most renowned painter, Johannes Vermeer. The authors discuss at length some ninety major paintings (seventeen by Vermeer), forty drawings, and a choice selection of decorative arts, all of which are reproduced in full colour. Among the paintings are state portraits, history pictures, still lifes, views of palaces and church interiors, illusionistic murals, and refined genre pictures by Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. The rich works on paper encompass exquisite drawings by Delft artists and sketches of the town by visiting artists. Included in the decorative arts are tapestries, bronze statuary, silver, Delftware, and glass. The volume concludes with an essay that takes the reader on a walk through seventeenth-century Delft. It is accompanied by maps of the city's neighbourhoods that indicate major monuments and the homes of patrons, art dealers, and painters. This handsome book serves as the catalogue for an exhibition to be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 5 March to 27 May 2001 and at the National Gallery, London, from 20 June to 26 September 2001.

Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation

Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation

Public and private life in the art of Pieter de Hooch

Public and private life in the art of Pieter de Hooch

Merleau‐Ponty, Realism and Painting: psychophysical space and the space of exchange

If Merleau‐Ponty was able to give painting a central place in his philosophy, it is because European painters of the realist tradition anticipated his themes in their practice. He implicitly defined painting as a form of inquiry, where the inquirer is corporeally engaged in the field of study, as opposed to science, which ‘looks down from above’, and he took painting as a model for his own thinking of sensation. A source for the spatial antitheses that recur throughout his writing is found in perspective construction, particularly in its seventeenth‐century genre and realist versions. It is the disembodied matrix of linear perspective, imposed ‘from above’, that makes situated perspective possible. Merleau‐Ponty is both a critic of perspective and a perspectivist; a critic of science and its interlocutor, requiring that which he opposes. The study of perception is a ground on which all three fields of concern – science, painting and philosophy – come together, the nineteenth century being a critical period for this encounter. The nineteenth‐century concept of ‘milieu’ is relevant here, because it unites the spatial antitheses referred to; it also introduces the theme of mediation. Without losing his commitment to sens– sensuousness and meaning – Merleau‐Ponty increasingly dehumanizes his philosophical vocabulary, introducing terms suggestive of mediation. This shift to the middle is signalled by a use of terms like ‘exchange’ and ‘commerce’ to describe the ‘two‐sidedness’ of perception. The language of exchange articulates the psychophysical, in Merleau‐Ponty’s later writing, informed by an underlying concern with Hegel and Marx. There is a parallel here with realist paintings by de Hooch and Degas which combine a ‘space of exchange‘– a secular and commercial modernity structured by shifting coordinates – with a space open to sens, where vision enters the visible. These paintings combine the systematic and the sensuous, in contexts of social and commercial exchange. The physicist Ernst Mach’s diagram of perception, which presents an extreme of spatial systematization, both compares and contrasts with spatiality in Degas and in Merleau‐Ponty. The theme of commerciality, and its intersection with Merleau‐Ponty’s ‘strange system of [sensory] exchanges’, finds a parallel in Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, which sheds oblique light on the philosopher’s late writing and its motifs of reflection and opening.

Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684

Pieter de Hooch, one of the most famous and innovative artists of Holland's Golden Age, played a pioneering role in the Delft School and m the advancement of genre painting and naturalism in the seventeenth century. Best known for his expressive use of interior space and sun-filled courtyards, de Hooch's command of perspective and responsiveness to light and atmosphere were unprecedented, and his work undoubtedly influenced his younger but more famous colleague Vermeer.This beautiful book examines de Hooch's position in Dutch genre painting and the social and political context of his art in the United Netherlands. It also addresses the artist's favored themes -- in particular the virtue of domesticity -- and relates them to Dutch civilization, literature, and the history of the family in the Protestant republic. Peter Sutton investigates de Hooch's approach to narration and his practice of encoding commentaries through symbolism, gesture, and such time-honored devices as the painting within the painting. In addition, he discusses new technical data concerning the artist's painting techniques, materials, and working methods. Through word and image, the book traces de Hooch's artistic development from his early beloved Delft period pictures to his more elegant and aristocratic paintings from his later years in Amsterdam.

:Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age

During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands-a small country with just two million inhabitants and virtually no natural resources-enjoyed a of economic success, world power, and tremendous artistic output. In this book Michael North examines the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch society boasted Europe's greatest number of cities and highest literacy rate, unusually large numbers of publicly and privately owned art works, religious tolerance, and a highly structured and wide-ranging social network. He explores the reasons for the country's success in trade and industry as it emerged from the Eighty Years' War against Spain, and the ways that art played a role in the innovative climate of the times. North looks at the practical aspects of this Golden Age-the banking system, demographic changes, and what made such industries as textiles and shipbuilding so successful. In this period commercialization not only had far-reaching effects on the economic life of the Netherlands, it also affected art, as market forces proved more powerful than patronage for the first time in Europe. With fascinating information about many artists, including Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Pieter de Hooch, North considers painting as a profession, the exhibitions and sales of art works (including the Dutch lottery system), auctions, and the prices that were paid for art. He compares the prices of different artistic genres and studies patterns of picture ownership. Through a close analysis of the private collection of Rembrandt's money lender, Harman Becker, North reveals the function served by works of art in Dutch households. This rich, in-depth view of the Dutch Golden Age will intrigue all readers with an interest in social, economic, or art history.

David de Hooch, een I7de-eeuws landschapschilder

AbstractIn I990 two paintings turned up - originally constituting one larger panel, cat. 9a and 9b - which might be attributed to a little-known landscape painter: David de Hooch, active in Amsterdam, possibly Utrecht and perhaps The Hague between I639 and I655, as can be deduced from scant archival data and stylistic afflnities. Doubtlessly influenced by Bartholomeus Breenbergh's works of the I630s, De Hooch painted mainly Italianate landscapes, probably without ever having travelled to Italy himself. Most of the works assembled here were known under different and sometimes unlikely attributions such as Breenbergh, his namesakes and possible relatives Charles and Horatius de Hooch, Willem de Poorter, Anthonie van der Croos, Cornelis Decker and even Aelbert Cuyp. Here, eighteen paintings are presented and catalogued in a provisional chronology: five earlier, clearly somewhat inexperienced works, leaning heavily on examples by other painters (cat. I - 5), are followed by six paintings which show the artist gradually developing his own style (cat. 6 - II). The last seven pictures (cat. I2 - I8) most probably date from De Hooch's mature period, in all likelihood the first half of the I650s. Most of these are fairly large formats, on which the artist achieved quite well-constructed, unified compositions with a convincing atmosphere.

The Depiction of Servants in Some Paintings by Pieter de Hooch

The Depiction of Servants in Some Paintings by Pieter de Hooch