The Louvre contains only two paintings by Pieter de Hooch, who was born
in 1629 at Rotterdam, a town which played a relatively unimportant part
in Dutch painting. He also lived at Delft and Leyden. The _Interior
of a Dutch House, with a Woman preparing Vegetables_ (No. 2414), is
a good example, and is fully signed in the bottom left-hand corner.
The _Dutch Interior, with a Lady playing Cards_ (No. 2415, Plate
XXXV.), is full of incidents, contains six figures, and is signed
on the base of one of the columns supporting the mantelpiece in the
left foreground. No museum in the world exhibits the art of Pieter de
Hooch in such excellence as does the National Gallery, which contains
three masterpieces from his hands that have indirectly been the cause
of assessing the whole of the artist’s life-work on too generous a
basis. It is indisputable that during the last ten years of his life,
of which nothing is known later than the signature and date, 1677,
on the _Music Party_ in the collection of Baron H. A. Steengracht at
The Hague, his art deteriorated very considerably both in colouring
and draughtsmanship. He may well have been a pupil of Karel Fabritius
(1624-1654), but it is almost incredible that he can have been a pupil
of the Italianiser Nicholaes Berchem, as Houbraken ventured to assert.
This museum contains nothing by Ochtervelt, many of whose pictures have
from time to time been accepted as the work of Pieter de Hooch.
From the shortlived artist Karel Fabritius derives the almost
incomparable master Jan Vermeer van Delft (1642-1675), whose fifty
authentic pictures are to-day among those most coveted by collectors.
As a _painter_ skilled in the technicalities of his profession Vermeer
must be accorded the highest rank. The subtle and mysterious handling
of his _Lace Maker_ (No. 2456, Plate XXXVI.), with its cool colour
scheme and dominant tones of blue and lemon-yellow, make it difficult
for us to realise that until twenty years ago his works were neglected.
Indeed, this small canvas was acquired in 1870 at the Vis Blokhuyzen
sale for the ridiculous sum of £290. Jan Vermeer (or Van der Meer)
van Delft is not to be confused with Jan Van der Meer of Haarlem
(1628-1691), who is included in the official catalogue as the painter
of the _Outside of an Inn_ (No. 2455, marked No. 2022 on the frame). It
is fully signed, and bears the date 1652.