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Vermeer and the Delft School
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Description
Private gardens had long been associated with wealth and aristocracy, and the setting also allowed for symbols appropriate to family portraiture: in this picture, roses for love; fruit for fecundity; the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk for the family's faith; and the vine recalling Psalm 128 (which describes a wife being like a fruitful vine at the side of a man's house). In this rare portrait by De Hooch, the artist achieves a remarkable synthesis of naturalism and formality by drawing upon his own genre scenes set in courtyards as well as earlier models, such as palace courtyard views by Van Bassen and Houckgeest. Numerous pentimenti indicate that De Hooch was somewhat less sure of precisely where to place the figures than they were of their position in society.
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Description