794. A DUTCH COURTYARD.
Pieter de Hooch (Dutch: 1630-about 1677).
Hooch (or Hooghe)—"the indoor Cuyp," as he has been called, and "one of the glories of the Dutch School—is also one of the glories of England," for it was here that his great merits were first discovered, and that three-fourths of his pictures are now preserved. "There are," says Ruskin (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. viii. § 11), whilst tracing the general insensitiveness of the Dutch School, "deeper elements in De Hooghe, sometimes expressed with superb quiet painting." He chose the simplest subjects and used apparently the simplest means. But his figures are always placed with the utmost skill, and the details, so carefully wrought, are all made contributory to the general idea of the picture. In producing an effect of serenity, Hooch is unsurpassed. Of his life nothing is known except that he was at Delft 1653-56, and that afterwards he resided at Amsterdam. In his own country, a fine picture by him so late as 1765 brought only 450 florins. In 1817 it fetched 4000 florins, whilst in 1876 the Berlin Gallery paid £6000 for one of his pictures. At the Secrétan Sale in 1889 an "interior" by De Hooch fetched £11,040. The present picture was bought in Paris in 1869 for £1722. No. 834 fetched in 1804, £220; No. 835, in 1810, £187.
The whole picture, in its cheerful colour and dainty neatness, seems to reflect the light of a peaceful and happy home, in which everything is done decently and in order. They are no rolling stones, these Dutch burghers, but stay-at-home folk, whose pride is in the trimness of their surroundings. Every day, one thinks, the good housewife will thus look to see that the dinner is duly prepared; every day the husband will thus walk along the garden, sure of her happy greeting. The picture is signed, and dated 1665.