The Visit | Pieter de Hooch | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelThis panel of about 1657 is one of the first works in which De Hooch employs linear perspective to assist in creating the typical Delft image of a realistic domestic interior. His earlier dependence upon figure groups, furniture, and contrasts of light and shadow to suggest three-dimensional space is still evident here, incongruously in the case of the underscaled bed. Hints of De Hooch's association with Vermeer are found in the study of light on the woman to the left and in her reflection in the window. The French critic Thoré-Bürger attributed the picture to Vermeer in articles of 1864 and 1866.

NotesEngraved by Ch. Courtry [see Ref. Blanc 1869] and by Daniel Mordant in the sale catalogue of the Narischkine collection of 1883.

Provenance?Jacob Odon, Amsterdam (until 1784; his estate sale, Arnoldus Dankmeyer en Zoon, Amsterdam, September 6ff., 1784, no. 10, for fl. 300 to Braams Pelsdinge); baron François Delessert, Paris (by 1833–69; cats., 1844, no. 58, 1846, no. 80; his sale, at his hôtel, Paris, March 15–18, 1869, no. 36, as "Intérieur hollandais," for Fr 150,000 to Narischkine); B. Narischkine, Paris (1869–83; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, April 5, 1883, no. 16, as "La Consultation," for Fr 160,000 to Cedron); E. Secrétan, Paris (until 1889; his sale, Galerie Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, July 1–7, 1889, no. 128, for Fr 276,000 to Durand-Ruel for Havemeyer); Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1889–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929)

Exhibition History

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loan Collection of Paintings," May–November, 1891, no. 6.

New York. American Fine Arts Society. "Loan Exhibition," February 13–March 26, 1893, no. 16.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Hudson-Fulton Celebration," September–November, 1909, no. 53.

New York. M. Knoedler & Co.. "Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Old and Modern Painters," April 6–24, 1915, no. 5.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 71.

Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Five Centuries of European Painting," May 16–October 26, 1963, unnumbered cat.

University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "Dutch Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 25, 1969–January 4, 1970, checklist no. 7.

Houston. Institute for the Arts, Rice University. "Dutch Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 18–March 1, 1970, checklist no. 7.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A326.

Delft. Prinsenhof. "Delft Masters, Vermeer's Contemporaries," March 1–June 2, 1996, unnumbered cat.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme...," October 20, 1997–January 18, 1998, no. 6.

Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Pieter de Hooch, 1629–1684," December 17, 1998–March 14, 1999, no. 8.

London. Dulwich Picture Gallery. "Pieter de Hooch, 1629–1684," September 3–November 15, 1998, no. 8.

London. National Gallery. "Vermeer and the Delft School," June 20–September 16, 2001, no. 25.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vermeer and the Delft School," March 8–May 27, 2001, no. 25.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Vermeer and the Delft Style," August 2–December 14, 2008, no. 18.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vermeer's Masterpiece 'The Milkmaid'," September 9–November 29, 2009, no. 2.

References

John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. 4, London, 1833, p. 229, no. 34.

Notice sur la collection de tableaux de MM. Delessert. Paris, 1844, p. 24, no. 58.

Notice sur la collection de tableaux de MM. Delessert. Paris, 1846, p. 52, no. 80.

W. Bürger [Théophile Thoré]. "Galerie de MM. Pereire." Gazette des beaux-arts 16 (April 1864), p. 313.

W. Bürger [Théophile Thoré]. "Van der Meer de Delft (1er article)." Gazette des beaux-arts 21 (October 1866), pp. 316–17, 551, no. 14.

Charles Blanc. "Galerie Delessert." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 1 (1869), pp. 202–4, ill. opp. p. 202 (engraving by Ch. Courtry).

Henry Havard. L'Art et les artistes hollandais. 3, Paris, 1880, pp. 104–5.

L'art 1 (1883), ill. p. 113 (etching by Daniel Mordant) [see Ref. Wurzbach 1906].

Henry Havard. Van der Meer de Delft. Paris, 1888, p. 36, no. 15.

A[braham]. Bredius. "Bijdragen tot de Biographie van Pieter de Hooch." Oud-Holland 7 (1889), p. 161 n. 2.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. "Proeve eener kritische Beschrijving van het Werk van Pieter de Hooch." Oud-Holland 10 (1892), p. 188, no. 87e, p. 189, no. 34.

W. Bode. "Alte Kunstwerke in den Sammlungen der Vereinigten Staaten." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 6, no. 1 (1895), p. 72, ill. p. 17.

Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. 1, Vienna, 1906, pp. 716–17.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 1, London, 1907, pp. 529–30, no. 192.

Royal Cortissoz. "Old Dutch Masters." Tribune (September 19, 1909) [reprinted in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (October 1909), pp. 166–67].

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909, vol. 1, p. 54, no. 53, ill. opp. p. 54.

Joseph Breck. "L'art hollandais à l'exposition Hudson-Fulton à New York." L'art flamand & hollandais 13, no. 2 (1910), p. 57 [published in Dutch in Onze Kunst 17 (February 1910), p. 42].

Kenyon Cox. "Dutch Pictures in The Hudson-Fulton Exhibition—III." Burlington Magazine 16 (February 1910), p. 305.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "Die Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in New York." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 3, no.1 (1910), p. 9.

E[mil]. Waldmann. "Die Ausstellung Holländischer Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts in New York." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 21, no. 4 (1910), p. 82.

William Bode. "More Spurious Pictures Abroad Than in America." New York Times (December 31, 1911), p. SM4.

Hans Jantzen. Farbenwahl und Farbengebung in der holländischen Malerei des XVII. Jahrhunderts. Parchim i. M., Germany, [1912], p. 24.

Arthur de Rudder. Pieter de Hooch et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1914, p. 105.

W[ilhelm]. R. Valentiner. "Pieter de Hooch, Part One." Art in America 15 (December 1926), pp. 47, 61, fig. 2.

Clotilde Brière-Misme. "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 16 (1927), p. 60, ill. p. 57.

W[ilhelm]. R. Valentiner. "Pieter de Hooch, Part Two." Art in America 15 (February 1927), pp. 74, 76, no. 7.

Abraham Bredius. "Pieter de Hooch und Ludolph de Jongh." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 62 (September 1928), p. 65.

Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), p. 462, ill. p. 474.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pieter de Hooch. New York, [1930], pp. X–XI, XV–XVI, 275, ill. p. 62 [German ed., 1929, pp. XIII, XVII–XVIII, 275, ill. p. 62].

Bryson Burroughs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings. 9th ed. New York, 1931, p. 168.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 18–19, ill.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "Zum 300. Geburtstag Jan Vermeers, Oktober 1932: Vermeer und die Meister der holländischen Genremalerei." Pantheon 10 (October 1932), p. 317.

Georg Pudelko. "Per la datazione delle opere di Fra Filippo Lippi." Rivista d'arte 18 (1936).

Franzsepp Würtenberger. Das holländische Gesellschaftsbild. Schramberg, Germany, 1937, p. 82.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, p. 19.

Peter C. Sutton. Pieter de Hooch. Ithaca, N.Y., 1980, p. 79, no. 19, pl. 18.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. "The Creation of the Havemeyer Collection, 1875–1900." PhD diss., City University of New York, 1982, pp. 109, 119 n. 24, pp. 127, 131–32, 138, 144–45 n. 37, pp. 149, 166 n. 7.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 58, 66, 77, 254, ill. p. 224 (installation photograph from Exh. New York 1915).

Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, p. 46.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 19, 191, 310 n. 37, p. 329 n. 268.

Walter A. Liedtke in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 65.

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "The Suffrage Exhibition of 1915." Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 91, 95, fig. 10 (installation photograph from Exh. New York 1915).

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 209, pl. 187.

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 349–50, no. A326, ill.

Frances Suzman Jowell. "Thoré-Bürger and Vermeer: Critical and Commercial Fortunes." Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive. Cambridge, Mass., 1995, pp. 126–27 n. 29, fig. 7.

Frances Suzman Jowell. "Thoré-Bürger—A Critical Rôle in the Art Market." Burlington Magazine 138 (February 1996), pp. 123–24, fig. 69.

Michiel C. C. Kersten in Delft Masters, Vermeer's Contemporaries. Exh. cat., Prinsenhof, Delft. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1996, pp. 143–45, 224, fig. 134 (color).

Peter C. Sutton. Pieter de Hooch, 1629–1684. Exh. cat., Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Hartford, 1998, pp. 13, 26, 28, 31, 102–3, no. 8, ill. (color).

Walter Liedtke. A View of Delft: Vermeer and his Contemporaries. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2000, pp. 178–79, colorpl. XII, fig. 242.

Walter Liedtke et al. Vermeer and the Delft School. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, pp. 16, 135, 140, 156, 270–72, 280, 351, 376, no. 25, ill. (color).

Frank Wynne. I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger. New York, 2006, p. 169, colorpl. 14.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 355–60, no. 84, colorpl. 84, fig. 93 (color detail); vol. 2, p. 871.

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 15, 28, 70, fig. 13 (color).

Walter Liedtke. Vermeer: The Complete Paintings. Antwerp, 2008, pp. 41–42, fig. 29 (color).

Peter C. Sutton. Vermeer and the Delft Style. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2008, pp. 52, 65, 138–41, no. 18, ill. (color, overall and detail).

Walter Liedtke. "The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2009, pp. 20, 26, 29, no. 2, colorpl. 2.

Leo J. O'Donovan. "An Eternal Now: Vermeer at the Met." Commonweal 136 (October 23, 2009), p. 25.

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