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The Courtyard of a House in Delft
Pieter de Hooch · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Pieter de Hooch (1629–1684)
- Date
- 1658
- Dimensions
- 73.5 x 60 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
This painting shows the sunny brick-paved courtyard of a house in Delft. On the right, a woman holding a little girl's hand walks across the yard; on the left, through a dark passage, another woman stands with her back to us, looking out into the street.
A closer look
De Hooch was a master of light and space: we look from the bright courtyard through the shadowy corridor to the sunlit house fronts across the canal, a series of spaces opening one into another. Every brick, the worn paving, the plants growing in the vine-covered trellis and the whitewashed walls are painted with loving care. Above the passage, a stone tablet with an inscription comes from the gate of a real Delft monastery. The calm domestic scene celebrates the order, cleanliness and quiet virtues valued by Dutch households of the time.
