Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/501

 iv PIETER DE HOOCH 477 She wears a red velvet jacket trimmed with ermine and holds a book in her left hand. Beside her a child in a lemon-yellow frock, whose back is turned to the spectator, is playing with a hoop. To the left are a table covered with a Persian carpet and a leather-covered chair. Above the wainscoting hangs a picture of the rescue of Andromeda [which was in the Habich sale, Kassel, No. 149, as the work of an unknown painter of the school of Rubens]. In the middle is a door, leading to a courtyard with trellises and trees. The court is paved with red and white tiles, and is seen in full light. A gentleman is walking along the path to a stone doorway of elaborate design. In the left foreground of the room a monkey and dog are playing ; both are weak. It is a fine work, closely resembling the work of the first period, but somewhat overcleaned. Beneath the retouching on the table the original drawing appears to have been somewhat different. This retouching goes right under the edge of the frame. Canvas, 23 inches by 30 inches. At the sale of Maystre of Geneva, in Paris, April 17, 1809, there was a picture of similar dimensions, but the figure in the background was described as that of a woman (18). Mentioned by Burger, pp. 136-37, and by Ch. Blanc, Tresor de la Curiosite, ii. 285. Exhibited in the Ducal Palace, 1855, and at the Diisseldorf Exhibition, 1904. Sale. J. L. Laneuville, Paris, November 6, 1811 (332 francs). Now in the collection of the Due d'Arenberg, at Brussels, No. 27 in Btirger's catalogue. 6. WOMAN WITH A BABY IN HER LAP AND A LITTLE GIRL. Sm. 16 ; deG. 30. The room represented here is the same as in the Amsterdam picture (i). The picture on the wall, there painted out, is here plainly visible ; the pantry-door on the left is closed ; in the second room in the right background there is no chair, and the lower half of the window is shuttered. In the front room somewhat more of the right-hand wall is visible ; here stands a small cupboard with a big bottle upon it, and on the wall hangs a map. The little girl, in the same costume as in i, stands in the middle of the room, holding in her arms a small dog, whose hind legs hang down. To the left sits the mother, holding a baby on her lap, and pointing with her left hand to the little girl. To her left is the cradle. Next to the Berlin picture (3) this is the best P. de Hooch in Germany. Signed in the left-hand bottom corner, " P.D.H., A 1658 " ; on panel, 24 inches by i8 inches ; a pendant to the Amsterdam picture (i), though that is somewhat larger. Mentioned by Ch. Blanc, Tresor de la Curioszte, ii. 503, and by W. Burger, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1864, vol. vi. pp. 161, 305, as then in the Isaac Pereire collection, Paris. Exhibited in the British Gallery, 1815, and in the Champs Elysees, Paris, 1866, No. 88. Sales. Pieter van der Lip, in Amsterdam, June 14, 1712 (Hoet, i. 147), No. 25 (90 florins).