Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/533

 iv PIETER DE HOOCH 509 on her right. He grasps with his right hand a plate that is on the table near an orange, and seems with his left hand to call the lady's attention to the player. To the left, in front of the table, is a chair with a cloak on it. Behind the group is the vine-clad wall of the house with a large window. To the right is an arched doorway, above which the sky, with rosy clouds, is visible. Through the doorway are seen a canal and the houses one dated 1620 on the opposite bank in full light. The houses are partly concealed by the figure of a young man who stands, with his back to the spectator, in the doorway. It is the last dated work of the artist. The effect of light is exaggerated. The types are weak, the shadows are bluish, and the orange of the lips is laid on too thick. Signed on the frieze of the doorway " P d'Hoogh 1677 " ; canvas, 32^ inches by 28 inches. Now in the collection of the Baron H. A. Steengracht at The Hague, where it was in 1833 (Sm.). 123. THE MINUET. Between the pillars in the background of a large and dimly lighted hall are a lady and a gentleman. Before them is a negro boy wearing a red jacket and yellow scarf, who brings a dish of oranges. A fair young gentleman, hat in hand, who stands at the back facing the spectator, and a girl in red, who waits in the right foreground with her back to the spectator, are about to dance a minuet. Beside the couple sit a man playing a fiddle and a woman who beats time and looks at a music- book. The architecture is in a rich baroque style, with statues in niches. The sunlight falls from the left ; the persons on the right are more in shadow. This is a genuine, but not a pleasing picture, being somewhat empty and covered with thick varnish. It is in the manner of the picture belonging to Baron Steengracht (122). Of the late period it is a comparatively good example. Canvas, 26 inches by 32^ inches. Sale. Vicomte du Bus de Gisignies, in Brussels, April 14, 1896, No. 67. Formerly in the Wynn Ellis collection in London. In 1897 in the possession of the dealer Steinmeyer in Cologne. 124. THE MINUET. Sm. Suppl. 31 ; de. G. 31. In the centre of the foreground of a lofty hall, paved with white, brown, and greyish- purple tiles, and adorned with a green silk curtain hanging from the roof, a lady and gentleman are walking to the front. The gentleman is dressed in white and carries in his left hand a hat with a red feather j the lady is in yellow and holds a fan. Behind them to the right a couple go in the opposite direction at a dancing step ; the lady is in black and red, and the gentleman, who wears his hat, is in greyish brown. In the left-hand corner of the room sit a music-party. Two young men play flutes j an elderly woman sings from a music-book ; in front of a table sits a gentle- man playing the fiddle ; beside him to the right a lady with her back to the spectator sits, beating time with her right hand. The fiddler looks round to a servant-girl, wearing a blue skirt and a red jacket trimmed with fur, who stands on the left and holds a large bottle and a glass. To the left is a window, one-half of which is open. Above the seated players