Courtyard, Delft

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Courtyard, Delft

Artist Pieter de Hooch Dutch, 1629-1684

Dateabout 1657

DimensionsH: 26 3/4 in. (68 cm); W: 22 5/8 in. (57.4 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1949.27

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 23

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesBode, W. von, 'Alte Kunstwerke in den Sammlungen der Vereinigten Staten," Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, 6, 1895, p. 72.

Hofstede de Groot, C., Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. 1, London, 1907, p. 555, no. 287.

Valentiner, W.R., "Die Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in New York," Monatshefte fur Kunst-Wissenschaft, 3, 1910, p. 9, fig. 10.

Rudder, A. de, Pieter de Hooch, Brussels, 1913, p. 105.

Catalogue of Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1914, p. 118.

Valentiner, W. R., Pieter de Hooch (Klassiker der Kunst), New York, n.d., p. 271, repr. p. 40 (as 1656).

Valentiner, W. R., "Pieter de Hooch. Part One," Art in America, Dec. 1926, p. 61.

Brière-Misme, C., "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XVI, periode 5, 1927, 65.

Valentiner, W.R., "Pieter de Hooch. Part Two," Art in America, 15, Feb. 1927, p. 77, no. 18.

Collins Baker, C.H., "De Hooch or not De Hooch," Burlington Magazine, 57, 1930, p. 198 (review of Valentiner; as 1656).

Valentiner, W.R., "Zum 300. Geburtstag Jan Vermeers, Oktober 1932. Vermeer und die Meister der holländischen Genremalerei," Pantheon, 10, 1932, p. 319 (as 1656).

Martin, W., De hollandsche schilderkunst in de 17e eeuw, II, 1936, p. 202 (as 1656).

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Toledo Museum of Art: Postwar Additions," Connoisseur, vol. 136, no. 548, October 1955, pp. 133-140, repr. p. 139.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Life of the People," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, (new series) vol. 1, no. 3, Fall 1957, pp. 3-6, repr. p. 4.

Connoisseur, vol. 142, no. 571, Sept. 1958, p. 64.

MacLaren, N., The Dutch School, National Gallery, London, 1960, p. 185, n. 15.

Gerson, H., "Pieter de Hooch," in Kindlers Malerei-Lexikon, III, Zurich, 1966, p. 308, repr.

Stechow, Wolfgang, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1966, p. 125, repr. (b&w) fig. 252.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 85, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 472, repr. (b&w) fig. 13.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 80, 81, pl. 31.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 55.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 188.

Sutton, P.C., Pieter de Hooch, Oxford, 1980, pp. 24-26, 79, no. 20, pl. IV (as ca. 1657).

Great Dutch Paintings from America, The Hague, 1990, p. 106, p. 304.

Lokin, Danielle H. A. C. et al., Delft Masters, Vermeer's Contemporaries, Zwolle, 1996, pp. 106-107, fig. 91 (col.).

Jean Siméon Chardin 1699-1779, Werk, Herkunft, Wirkung, Karlsruhe, 1999, p. 18, abb. 3, p. 15.

Lokin, Danielle H. A. C., "Life and Work in Seventeenth-Century Delft," in The Public and the Private in the Age of Vermeer, London, Philip Wilson, 2000, p. 33, fig. 1.

Meijer, Bert W., Vermeer: la ragazza alla spinetta e i pittori di Delft, Florence, Giunti, 2007, p. 34, fig. 1, p. 36 (col.).

Riley, Bronwen, Great Yarmouth Row Houses and Greyfriar's Cloister, London, English Heritage, 2010, repr. (col.), p. 6.

Jansen, Anita, and Jaap van der Veen, Pieter De Hooch in Delft: Uit De Schaduw Van Vermeer, Zwolle, WBooks, 2019, figs. 2-25, 3-2, 5-2, 5-4B, 5-16B, 6-1, repr. col. p.45-46, 49-50, 81-82, 85-86, 135.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hudson-Fulton Exhibition, 1909, no. 53A, repr. p. 195.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan 1909-1914.

Rotterdam, Boymans Museum, Vermeer: oorsprong en invloed: Fabritius De Hooch, De Witte, 1935, no. 36, fig. 39 (as 1656).

London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684, 1998-1999, no. 9, pp. 32, 36, 104, 106, repr. p. 37 (col., det.), p. 105, (col.).

Grand Rapids Art Museum, A Moral Compass: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Painting in the Netherlands, 1999, no. 12, pp. 66, 103, repr. (col.).

Label TextLike fellow Delft artist Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch specialized in quiet scenes of Dutch domestic life. De Hooch pioneered a category of images featuring the courtyards at the back of upper middle class houses. This painting is possibly the earliest example of this subject by De Hooch, and offers a glimpse into the private world of the Dutch home that visitors rarely saw. A scene of maids drawing water from the well and doing the laundry probably would have suggested to the 17th-century Dutch viewer a well-run household with overtones of domestic and moral virtue. The child observing the maid—learning the value of honest work by example—also fit into the idea of an orderly, virtuous home. The church spire in the background is that of the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Delft.