Peter de Hooch

Dutch School. Influenced by Rembrandt and also by Vermeer. His principal works are interiors of rooms, of which the subjoined are typical examples of fine quality.

LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY

INTERIOR OF A DUTCH HOUSE

On the left, against a window, a woman in a black velvet jacket and dark red skirt stands with her back to us holding up a glass of white wine in her right hand. She faces a table at which are sitting two cavaliers: the one bareheaded, in a yellow jerkin with an orange sash, in profile, his eyes fixed on the wineglass; the other, facing us, is " playing the fiddle " with a couple of long clay pipes. By the fireplace in the back wall on the right stands a maid in profile to left. The floor is paved with black and white squares, which show through the thin painting of some of the figures. Signed P. D. H.

From the Peel Collection.

LONDON, WALLACE COLLECTION

INTERIOR WITH WOMAN AND BOY "A woman dressed in a dark-coloured jacket and a scarlet skirt stands near the door in the act of taking a basket of fruit from a boy wearing a grey dress and a white cap. The open door gives a view across a vestibule. This is a clear and most satisfactory example of the master." (Smith.)