_Pieter de Hooch_ (Dutch: 1630-about 1677). _See 794._
This picture is interesting as enabling us to discern the painter's
technical process. "The more luminous parts of it, such as the costumes
of the two men at the table, are painted in semi-opaque colour over a
brilliant orange ground. Here and there the orange may be seen peeping
out, and its presence elsewhere gives a peculiar pearliness to the
tints laid upon it. De Hooch painted very thinly. In this picture the
maid with the brazier is an afterthought. She is painted over the
tiles and other details of the background, which now show through her
skirts. Before she was put in, this space to the right was occupied by
an old gentleman with a white beard and moustache, and a wide-brimmed
hat, all of which can be descried under the brown of the mantelpiece"
(Armstrong: _Notes on the National Gallery_, pp. 36, 37).