Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/500

 476 PIETER DE HOOCH SECT. In the Van der Hoop collection, 1842 (Sm.). Now in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam, No. 1252 in the 1903 catalogue (formerly No. 684). 3. MOTHER BESIDE A CRADLE. Sm. 9, 52, Suppl. 26 j deG. 1 6. Beside a cradle in the left foreground of a room with tiled floor sits a young woman, who has just suckled her baby and is fastening up her bodice, smiling, as she does so, at the child in the cradle who is not visible to the spectator. Behind her, on the left, in a panelled recess, is a four-post bed with a blue and white striped curtain. On the panelling hang a brass warming-pan and a red skirt. Beside the woman is a dog, lazily stretching himself. On the extreme right, under a high window, the lower half of which is closed with shutters, stands a table with a candle- stick and a jug. An open door on the right leads into an ante-room where a young girl is standing before the half-open house-door, through which the sunshine streams in. It is the finest work by the master in Germany. Canvas, 36^ inches by 40 inches. Sale, M. Martin, Paris, March 22, 1790 (1500 francs). In the Hoffman collection, in Haarlem, 1827 and 1842 (Sm.). Sale. Schneider, Paris, April 6, 1876, No. 13 (135,000 francs, Berlin Museum). Now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin, 1904 catalogue, No. 820^. 4. LADY AT HER NEEDLEWORK WITH A CHILD, IN A ROOM. At a window to the left of a handsome apartment paved with stone sits a young woman, almost facing the spectator. She wears a yellow silk skirt, a black jacket trimmed with white fur, and a white apron. Leaving her needle in the work on her lap, she looks up to speak to a little girl in an orange silk frock, who stands before the woman with her back to the spectator. On the woman's right is a basket full of some white material. Behind the chair the wall is hung with stamped leather ; there are on the wall two pictures, the lower parts of which alone are visible. A cushioned chair stands beneath a latticed window with a stone frame, above which is placed a figure of Mercury, similar to the figure in the Rothschild picture (195). To the right is visible a second room with a marble pilaster in the back wall. The signature, partly obliterated, is in the left-hand bottom corner ; canvas, 22 inches by 18 inches. Sales. Amsterdam, July n, 1798, No. 46. Meazza, in Milan, April 15, 1884, No. 76 (plate 10). Prince Paul Troubetzkoy, in Paris, May 3, 1892 (1600 francs). In the possession of the dealer Ch. Sedelmeyer of Paris, " Catalogue of 100. Paintings," 1895, No. 15. In the Lefevre collection, Amiens. Now in the Werner Weissbach collection, Berlin. 5. LADY READING, WITH A CHILD. De G. 21. To the right, in a room paved with slabs of marble, sits a young lady beside a window.