A Musical Party in a Courtyard by Pieter de Hooch

Love it.

Pieter de Hooch is the master of transforming those quiet domestic interior scenes of everyday Dutch life and transforming them into something so very beautiful. E.g., The Courtyard of a House in Delft by de Hooch - an ordinary scene of a girl holding the hand of her mother. This painting is after he left Delft and settled in Amsterdam. 

Here, one woman with a violin, a man seated (hat tilted) and smiling towards the third lady (stirring a glass of wine and v. stylishly adorned). But we’re drawn to the man standing silhouetted beneath the archway, looking out toward the street. Why is his back turned away from us?

The things great about his paintings:

1. Brilliant handling of light and space - main courtyard is flooded with soft twilight hues imbuing a calm atmosphere.
2. The doorkijkje device which has the effect of drawing the viewer into the painting, as if we’re “participating”.
3. The subject-matter is very appealing to me - and usually with some mystery to it - I enjoy the genre scenes of merriment (Jan Steen), or the low-lifes (Adriaen van Ostade) etc., but Hooch’s themes - a sense of order, virtue, safeness, cleanliness, with some lustful undertones, etc are things I like.
4. Attention to detail and textures - floor tiles, the vestments, and the opulent Turkish-style table cloth.

   

The sheer detail in the background beyond the archway is amazing - joints on exterior doors to a window, balustrade, stones on the gravel road, etc. What is especially great is how the brighter light “outside” is render in the paint.

:)