National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: A Dutch Courtyard
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

The serenity and self-confidence characteristic of Dutch art of the mid-seventeenth century are admirably expressed in this representation of a middle-class courtyard in Delft. The woman takes time from her round of chores to share a drink with two men relaxing in the pale sunlight; the little girl brings coals for their pipes.

De Hooch worked in Delft from 1652 to about 1660 when he moved to Amsterdam. In the 1650s, together with other artists active in that small and relatively quiet city, notably Carel Fabritius and Johannes Vermeer, he painted everyday scenes remarkable for their clarity of perspective and harmony of light. De Hooch gave order to his compositions by carefully determining how his architectural elements should be placed. The position of doors, windows and their shutters, floor tiles, or bricks were all carefully calculated and painted. As in this example, he often suggested a sequence of ordered spaces by showing distant views through windows or doors.

Despite the realistic appearance of the scene, this courtyard view is a distillation of typical elements found in many of De Hooch's courtyard paintings. Thus, even though the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk appears in the left background, it is unlikely that this view ever existed or that the exact location of the courtyard could be found.

Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Cornelis Sebille Roos [1754-1820], Amsterdam; (his sale, R.W.P. de Vries, Amsterdam, 28 August 1820, no. 51); Isaac van Eyck.[1] (sale, Paris); purchased by a Mr. Mason; purchased by Baron Lionel de Rothschild [1808-1879], Gunnersbury Park, Greater London, by 1842; by inheritance to his son, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st baron Rothschild [1840-1915]; by exchange with or sale to his brother, Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild [1842-1918], London and Halton House, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire;[2] bequeathed to his illegitimate daughter, Almina Victoria, Countess of Carnarvon [c. 1877-1969, later Mrs. Ian Onslow Dennistoun], London; sold 1924 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[3] sold November 1924 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 9(1842):573, no. 30.

[2] The Rothschild provenance information was kindly provided by Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild; see his "Rothschild Picture Provenances" from 1999 and his letter of 27 February 2002, in NGA curatorial files, in which he cites documents in The Rothschild Archive, London.

[3] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 292, box 437, folders 4 and 5, and reel 293, box 438, folders 1 and 2; copies in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1939
Masterworks of Five Centuries, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939, no. 81a, repro.
1998
Pieter de Hooch, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1998-1999, no. 19, repro., as Two Soldiers and a Woman Drinking in a Courtyard.
1999
Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, not in brochure.
2001
Vermeer and the Delft School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, London, 2001, no. 33, repro.
2007
Vermeer: La ragazza alla spinetta e i pittori di Delft, Foro Boario, Modena, 2007, no. 10, repro.

Bibliography

1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 9(1842):573, no. 30.
1854
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illustrated Mss., etc. etc. 3 vols. London, 1854: 2:130.
1879
Havard, Henry. L'Art et les artistes hollandais. 4 vols. Paris, 1879-1881: 3(1881): 128.
1884
Davis, Charles. A Description of the Works of Art Forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild. London, 1884: 1:no. 15, repro.
1907
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 1(1907): 559, no. 295.
1913
Rudder, Arthur de. Pieter de Hooch et son oeuvre. Brussels and Paris, 1913: 61, 65.
1925
Baker, Charles Henry Collins. Masters of Painting. Pieter de Hooch. London, 1925: 6-7.
1926
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch, Parts I and II." Art in America 15, no. 1 (December 1926): 45-64, fig. 4; 15, no. 2 (February 1927): 67-77.
1927
Brière-Misme, Clotilde. "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch." Parts I-III. Gazette des Beaux-Arts 69, no. 15 (1927): 361-380; no. 16: 51-79, 258-286.
1929
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch: des meisters gemälde in 180 abbildungen mit einem anhang über di genremaler um Pieter de Hooch und die kunst Hendrik van der Burchs." Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 35, 1929: xiv, xv, 44, repro. (also 1930 English ed., trans. by Alice M. Sharkey and E. Schwandt, London and New York).
1937
Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 82.
1939
Masterworks of Five Centuries. Exh. cat. Golden Gate International Exposition. San Francisco, 1939: 81a.
1939
McCall, George Henry. Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800. Wilhelm R. Valentiner, ed. Exh. cat. New York World's Fair, New York, 1939: 97.
1941
Duveen 1941, fig. 210.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 99-100.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 27.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 106, color repro.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 92, repro.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 44, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 112
1960
Baird, Thomas P. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Seven in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 34, color repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 20.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 192, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 69.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:240, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 61, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 178, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 288, no. 384, color repro.
1980
Sutton, Peter C. Pieter de Hooch: Complete Edition with a Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford, 1980: 85, no. 35a.
1981
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York, 1981: 22, ill. 16 (also 1988 2nd rev. ed., 20, fig. 16).
1984
Philadelphia 1984, 219.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 288, no. 378, color repro.
1984
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 28-29, repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 205, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 132, repro.
1995
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 139-142, color repro. 141.
1998
Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition: Faith, Reason and Power in the Early Modern World. New York, 1998: frontispiece, repro.
2001
Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 62-63, color repro.

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