A Woman Drinking with Two Men by Pieter de Hooch (1658)

Another one of de Hooch’s quiet domestic genre paintings from the National Gallery at London. See others here.

It has all the hallmarks of the Dutch master - the way light shines through the windows and into the domestic (creating shadows and a warmer pallete on surfaces apropos interaction with light - e.g. plaster on the walls), the high-contrasting tiled floors are masterfully rendered creating a terrific illusion of depth, and finally the Dutch sense of mystery.

For me, the lady in the black-and-red dress seems most enigmatic. Why stand with her back to us? Her fine clothing would suggest a wealthy middle-class lady (i.e. not a maid)? Why hold up a glass of wine like that? Is she mocking? What’s in her right hand? Why is the man opposite her playing with some makeshift musical instrument? Is she toying with them? 

According to the NG:

Scenes left open to different interpretations are characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, and depictions of musical gatherings were especially ambiguous – they can represent innocent entertainments or something more salacious. Here we can’t even be sure whether this is a musical gathering, let alone whether or not it is an innocent one.

This painting was owned by Sir Robert Peel - former Prime Minister and founder of the Conservative Party.

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Love the clothes, hats etc., and especially how they capture the light.

The painting above the fireplace is “the education of the Virgin Mary, kneeling before her mother, Saint Anne, and so represents the ultimate example of how to instil virtue in a young woman ... Seduction is still potentially in the air, however, hinted at by the intense attention of the men on the woman with the wine glass and by the presence of pipes, including one which has been broken and discarded on the chequerboard floor.”