This picture of the late 1660s was cut down by about seven inches before 1841, eliminating a woman in the bed on the right (described in a sale catalogue of 1785). Two inches were added to the top of the canvas, and the seated man, apparently the woman's lover, was overpainted at the same time.
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Title:Woman with a Water Pitcher, and a Man by a Bed
Artist:Pieter de Hooch (Dutch, Rotterdam 1629–1684 Amsterdam)
Date:ca. 1667–70
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:24 1/4 x 20 1/2 in. (61.5 x 52.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Object Number:32.100.15
Aron de Joseph de Pinto (until 1785; his sale, [Amsterdam], April 11, 1785, no. 2, for fl. 45 to Van der Schley [one of the organizers of the sale]); Van Helsleuter, Paris; [Henry Héris, Brussels, until 1839; sold for Fr 6,000 to Brié]; Colonel Brié, Brussels (1839–41; his anonymous sale, organized by Héris, Hôtel rue des Jeuneurs, 16, Paris, March 25, 1841, no. 12, for Fr 5,950); Mawson (until 1850; his anonymous sale, rue des Jeuneurs, 42, Paris, February 22–23, 1850, no. 31, for Fr 1,980); Mr. Arnold, New York (in 1851); H. A. Hammond Smith, New York (until 1916; sold to Kleinberger on March 9]; [Kleinberger, New York, 1916–17; sold for $22,000 to Friedsam]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1917–d. 1931)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Five Centuries of Dutch Art," March 9–April 9, 1944, no. 75.
Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "European Masters of the XVII and XVIII Centuries," January 13–February 5, 1950, no. 5.
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Life in Seventeenth Century Holland," November 21, 1950–January 14, 1951, no. 51.
Milwaukee Auditorium. "Metropolitan Art Museum $1,000,000 Masterpiece Exhibition," March 7–14, 1953, unnumbered cat. (p. 14).
Austin, Tex. City Coliseum. "Texas Fine Arts Festival: Metropolitan Museum $1,000,000 Collection of Old Masters," April 18–26, 1953, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Painter's Light," October 5–November 10, 1971, no. 14.
Huntington, N.Y. Heckscher Museum. "Windows and Doors," January 30–March 19, 1972, no. 23.
Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 82.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 82.
St. Petersburg, Fla. Museum of Fine Arts. "Dutch Life in the Golden Century," January 21–March 2, 1975, no. 30.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Dutch Life in the Golden Century," April 4–May 4, 1975, no. 30.
Memphis. Brooks Memorial Art Gallery. "Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 1–June 23, 1982, no catalogue?
Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Museum of Art. "Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 28–November 28, 1982, no catalogue?
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.
Charles Blanc. Le trésor de la curiosité. Vol. 2, Paris, 1858, p. 441, records the price fetched at the 1841 sale as Fr 5,950.
Charles Blanc. Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: École hollandaise. Paris, 1861, vol. 2, p. 8 of section on de Hooch.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 1, London, 1907, pp. 498–99, no. 80; pp. 501–2, no. 95, as "Gentleman and Lady in a Bedroom" with a description based on that in the 1785 sale catalogue (no. 80); and as "The Maid-Servant" with a description based on that in the 1841 sale catalogue (no. 95).
Guy Pène du Bois. "Famous American Collections: The Collection of Mr. Michael Friedsam." Arts and Decoration 7 (June 1917), ill. p. 399.
Clotilde Brière-Misme. "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 16 (1927), pp. 268–69, ill. p. 270, as "Le Lever"; states that Hofstede de Groot nos. 80 and 95 are the same picture.
W. R. Valentiner. "Pieter de Hooch, Part Two." Art in America 15 (February 1927), p. 77, no. 22, as "Gentleman and Lady in a Bedroom".
Wilhelm R. Valentiner in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 1, dates it about 1658–60; records the signature (of which no trace exists today) "P.D.H." on the lower border of the carpet on the table.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pieter de Hooch. New York, [1930], p. 284, ill. p. 127 [German ed., 1929], dates it about 1670–75.
Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), p. 48, no. 84, ill. p. 49, state that it must have been cut down at some time since the 18th century, when it was mentioned in a sale catalogue as being in a horizontal format with a woman in bed on the right.
"Friedsam Bequest to be Exhibited Next November." Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13, prints Bryson Burroughs's survey of the Friedsam paintings.
A. J. Barnouw. Dutch Paintings: A Picture Book. New York, 1944, pl. 20.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 49.
Franklin W. Robinson. Dutch Life in the Golden Century. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Fla. St. Petersburg, Fla., 1975, pp. 43–45, no. 30, ill. (overall, and color detail on cover), dates it probably early 1670s.
Peter C. Sutton. Pieter de Hooch. Ithaca, N.Y., 1980, pp. 50, 100, no. 79, pl. 82, dates it about 1667–70.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 333, ill.
Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann inThe Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998, p. 167 n. 14.
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 70.
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 362, 366–68, no. 88, colorpl. 88.
Adriaan E. Waiboer inVermeer et les maîtres de la peinture de genre. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017, pp. 276, 279 n. 6.
The sale catalogue of 1785 describes this picture as a horizontal work of 22 x 27 duim [the duim is only slightly larger than the inch] which included a woman in the bed on the right. At some time after 1785 about 6 1/2 inches were cut from the right of the canvas and about 2 1/4 inches were added to the top. Probably at the same time the man and what remained of the bed were painted out. The dimensions in the sale catalogue of 1841 are close to those of the present picture, and neither the bed nor the man is mentioned. As indicated in a letter of 1916 from Hammond Smith, before he sold the painting to Kleinberger he cleaned it and at that time uncovered the bed and the man.
Pieter de Hooch (Dutch, Rotterdam 1629–1684 Amsterdam)
ca. 1670
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