Pieter de Hooch
(1639 - 1684) |
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Genre Narratives, Art Work
| Name: |
Pieter de Hooch |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Rotterdam |
| Nationality: |
Dutch |
| Birth: |
1639 |
| Death: |
1684 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Genre Narratives, |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
oil on canvas |
| Style: |
Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| An exact contemporary of Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch was also the artistic counterpart to the great Delft master both in subject matter and in the development of his career. While Vermeer underscored the universal, timeless, elemental qualities in his depictions of quiet domestic life, de Hooch picked out specifics, emphasizing the momentary and often the more mundane aspects of life in the home, to which he imparted the qualities of a visual parable. Among his themes, Vermeer favored women alone or with servants, while Pieter de Hooch preferred mothers and children. Vermeer developed into one of the greatest painters of all time in the brief fortythree years of his life. Pieter de Hooch lived a good decade longer but his quality was uneven, and the works he produced in Delft and his first few years in Amsterdam are the most highly prized. The two artists shared more than subject matter and the city of Delft – they clearly inspired one another, though the nature of their mutual influence is not entirely established. De Hooch most likely anticipated Vermeer*s courtyard and ulterior scenes. Early sources report that de Hooch studied with Claes Berchem and then with Jacob Ochtervelt, perhaps in Haarlem. Documents record that in 1652 de Hooch witnessed a will in Delft with the artist Hendrick van den Burgh. In 1653 de Hooch is mentioned as servant and painter to the Delft cloth merchant Justus de la Grange. De Hooch was living in Rotterdam when he married a Delft citizen in 1654, but the following year he joined the Delft painters' guild. Just when he moved to Amsterdam is unclear, but it must have been by 1661; he remained there until his death, except for a brief visit to Delft in 1663. He died in the insane asylum of Amsterdam, though the circumstances of his entry into that institution are not clear. Few if any documents trace his activity from 1672 until his death in 1684. His earliest known paintings date from 1658, and they are already so mature that he must have produced undated works even earlier. Consisting mainly of barrack-room subjects (such as the Woman Drinking with a Soldier, dated 1658, Paris, Louvre), his early works are, in style and subject, reminiscent of the Amsterdam painters Pieter Codde* and Willem Duyster. By 1658 de Hooch was also producing domestic interiors and courtyard subjects, inspired by the warm scenes of home life found in Nicolaes Maes's* early works. These pictures wonderfully convey maternal themes, set in a geometry carefully ordered out of the mundane surroundings that make up domestic life: rooms, courtyards, windows, furnishings. Striking a balance that gives considerable emphasis to the architectural setting, de Hooch caught his subjects unselfconsciously engaging in routine daily chores such as storing the linen, cleaning fish, or preparing apples. In their ordered, formal construction, de Hooch's paintings underscore the harmonious existence of a clean and tidy home. Cleaning implements such as brooms, basins, and buckets also frequently appear. De Hooch's command of perspective and his ability to create convincingly natural settings was particularly celebrated as was his control of light, color, and atmosphere. Gerrit Houckgeest and Emanuel de Witte* have been mentioned as possible sources of inspiration during de Hooch's Delft years. During the early 1660s de Hooch moved to Amsterdam and his style developed to include more massive and solid figures, while his palette gained in warm tones. In these later works the influence of Maes is said to be stronger. Many scholars find that in the later 1660s de Hooch's work began to decline, reflecting the artificial and ornate French taste that was infiltrating Holland. Other scholars, while praising de Hooch's less refined manner of painting in his early career, do admire the somewhat more artificial later works. His last dated work comes from 1684; thus his oeuvre is considerable. He was only in his fifties when he died, evidently still experimenting and changing. De Hooch had no recorded pupils, though Pieter Janssens Elinga, Jacobus Vrel, and Esaias Boursse must have been influenced by him. |
Samples of Work
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