The Bedroom

1658/1660

Pieter de Hooch

Artist, Dutch, 1629 - 1684

A smiling young child holds the latch of an open wooden door as she looks toward a woman to our right in this almost square painting. The woman and child both have pale skin and stand in a bedroom. To our left, the child is the same height as the door handle, and she faces us. Her blond, upswept hair is backlit, and light falls on her from windows to our left. She turns to look at the woman with dark eyes, a slight smile on her pink lips. She wears a garment with a mauve-gray bodice and sleeves, a sage-green apron over a honey-yellow, ankle-length skirt, and dark shoes. She holds the ring of the door latch with her right hand, to our left, and holds a ball by her side in her other hand. The room has white walls with thick wood beams above, wood molding around the door and window, and a clay-red tiled floor. On the wall to either side of the girl and about the same height as she is, white tiles painted with scenes in azure blue line the walls. Wooden chairs to either side of the door have lion-shaped finials and a diamond pattern on the cloth-covered backs. A landscape painting in a black frame hangs over the door, and a wood table covered with a red cloth, holding a ceramic jug, sits to our left, along the wall coming toward us. The rightmost third of the composition is spanned by a bed set within a ceiling-high, cabinet-like enclosure. The woman stands in front of the bed, her body facing our left in profile. A white kerchief covers her hair and is tied under her chin. She wears a red shirt with white at the chest and cuffs, which are rolled back. A marine-blue skirt falls to her ankles. She holds a brown cloth in front of her, and another cloth is draped over a chair. A gleaming, squat, brown jug sits on floor nearby. A forest-green curtain lines the squared opening to the bed, and another green curtain is pulled to one side of a window next to the open door. Through the door and window, we see a second door across a shallow entryway, which leads outside. Both halves of the outer, Dutch door are open, though the top half swings in a little more than the bottom half. The space beyond has a fence or trellis, green plants, and the edge of a red roof.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Pieter de Hooch excelled in the sensitive depiction of people going about their daily lives, be it inside their houses or in the sheltered environment of an urban courtyard. His masterly control of light, color, and complex perspectival construction can be compared to the work of Johannes Vermeer, his contemporary and colleague in Delft.

Through his careful arrangement of the interior space in The Bedroom and his treatment of light, De Hooch infused this everyday scene with an extraordinary intimacy and warmth. Two light sources—the double windows on the left plus the open Dutch door and transom at the front of the house—illuminate the child who opens the door to the inner room. The doorway is flanked by rows of glazed Dutch tiles depicting popular children’s games. Based on the dress, the youngster could be either a girl or a boy. All small children wore skirts, regardless of gender, and the age at which a boy would change to wearing breeches was rather fluid. It is possible that De Hooch depicted his own family: his wife, Jannetje, and either his son, Peter, born in 1655, or his daughter, Anna, born in 1656.

The painting’s traditional title of The Bedroom is somewhat misleading, for the box bed against the wall was part of a large multifunctional room. The mother, busy tending to the chamber pot and airing out the linens, prepares the room for its daytime uses. The harmonious character of De Hooch’s painting and its emphasis on the mother’s dual responsibility as nurturer of her child and caretaker of the home, embody the ideal of Dutch domestic felicity.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50-A

Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 51 x 60 cm (20 1/16 x 23 5/8 in.)
    framed: 73 x 82.6 x 8.9 cm (28 3/4 x 32 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.33

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: The Bedroom, 1658/1660

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly S.J. Stinstra collection, Amsterdam; possibly (sale, S.J. Stinstra, Amsterdam, 1822, no. 86).[1] William Waldegrave, Admiral Lord Radstock [1753-1825]; (sale, Christie's, 12-13 May 1826, 2nd day, no. 14); George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd marquess of Stafford and 1st duke of Sutherland [1783-1833], Stafford House, London; by inheritance to his son, George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd duke of Sutherland [1786-1861], Stafford House; (Emery Rutley, London), in 1846;[2] Morant.[3] Robert Field, London; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 6 June 1856, no. 520). Charles Scarisbrick [d. 1860], Scarisbrick Hall, Lancashire; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 10 May 1861, no. 119); (Francis Nieuwenhuys, London);[4] Adrian John Hope [1811-1863], London; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 June 1894, no. 32); (Charles J. Wertheimer, London and Paris); (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris); sold 30 July 1894 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 8 vols., trans. Edward G. Hawke, London, 1907-1927: 1:498, no. 78, includes a reference to this sale in his provenance of The Bedroom. The De Hooch painting in that sale, however, need not necessarily refer to NGA 1942.9.33, since other versions of the composition exist.
[2] According to a note by John Smith contained in Hofstede de Groot's typescript supplement, ad. no. 78, to Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 8 vols., trans. Edward G. Hawke, London, 1907-1927, in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague.
[3] The Getty Provenance Index indicates that Rutley purchased the painting from Sutherland for Morant, but also notes that the entry for the painting in Ben P.J. Broos et al., Great Dutch Paintings from America (Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1990-1991: no. 35) has Morant buying for Rutley.
[4] According to the Getty Provenance Index, Christie's copy of the 1861 sale catalogue is marked "FN" and Peter C. Sutton, Pieter de Hooch: Complete Edition with a Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford, 1980: no. 40B, gives the buyer as "Nieuwenhuys."

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1909

  • The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 55.

1990

  • Great Dutch Paintings from America, Mauritshuis, The Hague; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1990-1991, no. 35, color repro., as The Box Bed.

1998

  • Pieter de Hooch, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1998-1999, no. 21, repro.

1999

  • Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, not in brochure.

2000

  • The Public and the Private in the Age of Vermeer, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 2000, no. 23, repro.

2003

  • Vermeer y el interior holandés, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003, no. 12, repro.

2009

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Gemeente Musea / Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof, Delft, 2009.

2012

  • Vermeer: Il secolo d'oro dell'arte olandese, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2012-2013, no. 28, repro.

2019

  • Pieter de Hooch in Delft. From the Shadow of Vermeer, Museum Prinsenhof, Delft, 2019-2020, no. 15a, 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: 4(1833):227, no. 9.

1833

  • Passavant, Johann David. Kunstreise durch England und Belgien. Frankfurt, 1833: 63.

1837

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris. 3 vols. Berlin, 1837–1839: 2(1838):67.

1838

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Works of Art and Artists in England. 3 vols. Translated by H. E. Lloyd. London, 1838: 2:253-354.

1844

  • Jameson, Anna Brownell Murphy. Companion to the Most Celebrated Galleries of Art in London. London, 1844: 205, no. 124.

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:71.

1857

  • Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). Trésors d’Art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant des collections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulières de la Grande-Bretagne. Paris, 1857: 319.

1865

  • Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). Trésors d’Art en Angleterre. 3rd ed. Paris, 1865: 319.

1879

  • Havard, Henry. L'art et les artistes hollandais. 4 vols. Paris, 1879-1881: 3:61-138.

1885

  • Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. 2 vols. Paris, 1885-1900: 2(1900):215, repro.

1894

  • Richter, Jean Paul. "Versteigerung der Adrian Hope-Sammlung in London." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 17 (June 1894): 331-333.

1897

  • Roberts, William. Memorials of Christie's: A record of art sales from 1766 to 1896. 2 vols. London, 1897: 1:193.

1898

  • Sedelmeyer, Charles. Illustrated Catalogue of 300 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English schools, being some of the principal pictures which have at various time formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1898: no. 70, repro.

1901

  • Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d'art. 7 vols. Paris, 1901-1912: 3(1911):482.

1906

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. Rembrandt und Seine Zeitgenossen.... Leipzig, 1906: 58.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 1(1907) 498, no. 78.

1909

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Catalogue of a collection of paintings by Dutch masters of the seventeenth century. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration 1. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909: xxiv, 56, no. 55, repro., 154, 161.

1910

  • Breck, Joseph. "Hollandsche kunst op de Hudson-Fulton tentoonstelling te New York." Onze Kunst 17 (February 1910): 41-47.

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Die Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in New York." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 3 (1910): 9.

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Old Dutch Masters Held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Connection with the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. New York, 1910: 14, 200, no. 55, repro. 201.

  • Cox, Kenyon. "Art in America, Dutch Paintings in the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition III." The Burlington Magazine 16, no. 83 (February 1910): 305.

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.

1914

  • Rudder, Arthur de. Pieter de Hooch et son oeuvre. Collection des grands artistes des Pays-Bas. Brussels and Paris, 1914: 105.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen: Charakterbilder der grossen Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malershule im siebzehnten Jahrhundert. 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1923: 58.

1925

  • Collins Baker, Charles Henry. Pieter de Hooch. Masters of Painting. London, 1925: 6.

1926

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch, Part I." Art in America 15, no. 1 (December 1926): 61.

1927

  • Brière-Misme, Clotilde. "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch, Part II." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 69, no. 16 (July-August 1927): 58, 63 (referring to the version in Karlsruhe).

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Pieter de Hooch, Part II." _Art in America _ 15, no. 2 (February 1927): 76, no. 12.

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): xv, repro. 59, 274 (also 1930 English ed., translated by Alice M. Sharkey and E. Schwandt, London and New York).

1930

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Pieter de Hooch: The Master’s Paintings. Translated by Alice M. Sharkey and E. Schwandt. London and New York, 1930: xv, repro. 59, 274.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 82, repro.

1938

  • Waldmann, Emil. "Die Sammlung Widener." Pantheon 22 (November 1938): 341.

1939

  • Godwin, Blake-More. Toledo Museum of Art: Catalogue of European Paintings. Toledo, Ohio, 1939: 106.

1940

  • "Famous Widener Collection of Old Masters Given to the Nation." Art Digest 15 (1 November 1940): 10-11.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 5.

1948

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 63, repro.

1960

  • Staatlichen Kunsthalle. Holländische Meister aus der Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, 1960: no. 25, repro.

1961

  • Reitlinger, Gerald. The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760-1960. (Vol. 1 of The Economics of Taste). London, 1961: 344.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 315, repro.

1964

  • Fedden, Robin. Polesden Lacey, Surrey: a property of the National Trust. Plaistow, 1964: 24.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 69.

1966

  • Lauts, Jan. Katalog alte Meister bis 1800. 2 vols. Karlsruhe, 1966: 1:152, no. 259; 2:360, repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 61, repro.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 178-179, repro.

1976

  • Wittmann, Otto, ed. The Toledo Museum of Art: European Paintings. University Park, 1976: 81.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 52-53, pl. 29.

1979

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Perspective and Its Role in the Evolution of Dutch Realism." In Perception and Pictorial Representation. Edited by Calvin F. Nodine and Dennis F. Fisher. New York, 1979: 111, fig. 7.1.

1980

  • Sutton, Peter C. Pieter de Hooch: Complete Edition with a Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford, 1980: 21, 26, 87, no. 40B, pl. 44.

1981

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York, 1981: 34, fig. 34.

1982

  • Clark, H. Nichols B. "A Fresh Look at the Art of Francis W. Edmonds: Dutch Sources and American Meanings." _The American Art Journal _ 14 (Summer 1982): 92, fig. 22.

  • Reitlinger, Gerald. The Economics of Taste: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices, 1760–1960. 3 vols. Reprint. New York, 1982: 1:344.

1984

  • Sutton, Peter C. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Jane Iandola Watkins. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Royal Academy of Arts, London. Philadelphia, 1984: 222, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 291, no. 382, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 206, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington and Grand Rapids, 1986: 311.

1988

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. Masters of Art. 2nd rev. ed.. New York, 1988: 33, fig. 34.

1990

  • Schneider, Cynthia P. Rembrandt’s Landscapes: Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Boston, 1990: 105-106, repro.

  • Broos, Ben P. J., ed. Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat. Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The Hague and Zwolle, 1990: 300-304, no. 35, color repro. 300, as The Bed Box.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 133-136, color repro. 135.

1996

  • Kersten, Michiel C.C., and Daniëlle H.A.C. Lokin. Delft masters, Vermeer's contemporaries: illusionism through the conquest of light and space. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft. Zwolle, 1996: 151, fig. 143.

1998

  • Sutton, Peter C. Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684. Exh. cat. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. New Haven, 1998: 130-131, no. 21, repro.

1999

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Exhibition review: Pieter de Hooch. Dulwich and Hartford." The Burlington Magazine 141, no. 1151 (February 1999): fig. 66.

  • Alpers, Svetlana. "De Hooch: A View with a Room." Art in America 87, no. 6 (June 1999): 96-97, repro.

2000

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. The Public and the Private in the Age of Vermeer. Exh. cat. Osaka Municipal Museum of Art. London, 2000: 11, 12, fig. 1, 19, 40, no. 23, 140-142, repro.

2001

  • Franits, Wayne E., ed. The Cambridge companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, England, and New York, 2001: 15, repro.

  • Westermann, Mariët, et al. Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt. Exh. cat. Denver Art Museum; Newark Museum. Zwolle, 2001: 137, fig. 182.

2003

  • Vergara, Alejandro. Vermeer y el interior holandés. Exh. cat. Museo nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003: 120-121, no. 12, repro.

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. Facsimile edition of London 1854. London, 2003: 2:71.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 188, no. 149, color repro.

2006

  • Franits, Wayne E. Pieter de Hooch: A woman preparing bread and butter for a boy. Getty Museum Studies on Art. Los Angeles, 2006: 20 fig. 17, 21, 72 nn. 17 and 18.

2010

  • Powell, Amy. "Painting as Blur: Landscapes in Paintings of the Dutch Interior." Oxford Art Journal 33, no. 2 (2010): 165, fig. 19.

2012

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Walter A. Liedtke, and Sandrina Bandera Bistoletti. Vermeer: il secolo d'oro dell'arte olandese. Exh. cat. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome. Milan, 2012: no. 18, color repro.

2016

  • Humfrey, Peter. "The Stafford Gallery at Cleveland House and the 2nd Marquess of Stafford as a Collector." Journal of the History of Collections 28, no. 1 (2016): 52, 55 n. 61.

2020

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Clouds, ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020: 20, fig. 4, 21.

2022

  • Georgievska-Shine, Aneta. Vermeer and the Art of Love. London, 2022: 57-60, 156, color fig. 45, 146, nt. 2.

Wikidata ID

Q19961135

You may be interested in

Loading Results