The Depiction of Servants in Some Paintings by Pieter de Hooch Author(s): Wayne E. Franits Source: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 52. Bd., H. 4 (1989), pp. 559-566 Published by: Deutscher Kunstverlag GmbH Munchen Berlin Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1482471 Accessed: 11-04-2020 12:30 UTC

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms I. Pieter de Hooch, A girl with a basket in a garden, 1661 x ?, Basel, Kunstmuseum

Wayne E. Franits The depiction of servants in some paintings by Pieter de Hooch

The Dutch seventeenth-century painter Pieter de dated 28 May I653, he himself is recorded as a ser- Hooch is well-known for his paintings of domestic vant (dienaar) of the linen merchant Justus themes, works that comprise a considerable part of de la Grange. Apparently, a fellow servant had his ceuvre'. De Hooch's numerous paintings of suddenly vanished from De la Grange's service housewives and their maids have long been es- presumably stealing some of his master's posses- teemed as quintessential expressions of the virtues of domesticity. Moreover, he is one of the few ar- ' In his exemplary monograph on the artist, Peter C. Sut- tists of his day to depict servants as an independent ton: Pieter de Hooch, Oxford 1980, 45 states that subject . domestic subjects compose more than one-third of De Hooch's works. It is possible that Pieter de Hooch had a personal 2 See, for example, ibid., color pls. VIII, IX; pls. 39, 40, interest in portraying servants. In a document 41, 42, 49.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms NEC SVMMA SATIS; ship was purely contractual: he received room and board and a stipend in exchange for his paintings6. In Berchem's case, our source ,.. . . ?.. . .?.- .. in simply notes that he produced pictures for a cer- 4A4 tain gentleman who paid him ten guilders per rJ r diem7. 'ForL It is important to reiterate that the precise nature of De Hooch's arrangement with De La Grange is i i - unclear. But because of the manner in which it is _::7s recorded in the document - versus the purely con- tractual agreements of De Witte and Berchem - we - - . 5.. . . can speculate that he might have actually been De La Grange's servant if only for a brief period of time. The document in which De Hooch is de- ...... -. scribed as a servant and painter was drafted in May 1653, in other words when he was no older than twenty-three. As a relatively new resident of Delft 2. Illustration from: Jacob Cats, Proteus- De Hooch ofte was a native of Rotterdam - perhaps minne-beelden verandert in sinnebeelden, the young Rotter- painter needed to support himself by dam 1627, , Universiteits-Bibliothek another occupation, a not uncommon practice among artists in The Netherlands at this time8. sions in the process. The belongings that 3 De Hoochthis wasser- given the coat because the other servant had stolen his own coat. For the document in question, vant had left behind were consequently see auctioned. A. Bredius: ))Iets over de Hooch,<< Nederlandsche A cloth coat that remained unsold was Kunstbode, given Beeldende to Kunst, Oudheidkunde, Kunst- >>De Hoogh, Schilder, mede dienaer van de voorsz. raphienijverheid, van PieterIII, i88i, de 126; Hooch,<< idem: Oud,Bijdragen Holland, tot VII, de 1889,biog- La Grange<<3. Although the document specifically 162. See also Sutton, op. cit. (n. i), 9 and 145 document describes De Hooch as a painter who was 15. a servant of De la Grange, the exact nature of their 4 De la Grangerelation- gave these paintings to a relative in 16655, presumably to cover a debt; see Sutton, op. cit. (n. i), ship remains unclear. Nevertheless, it146 isdocument known 23. that De la Grange owned eleven paintings 5 See for example,by the Leonard J. Slatkes: Vermeer and his artist4. This fact along with the wording contemporaries, of the New York I981, 124. Sutton, op. cit. (n. i), 9 states that there is no proof that De Hooch ever document has led scholars to postulate resided that with De De la Grange and that their relationship ap- Hooch probably worked as an artist pears under to have con- been short-lived. tract to De la Grange, to wit, handing 6 overSee Ilse partManke: orEmanuel de Witte 1617- 1692, Amster- dam 1963, 3-4. See also A. Bredius: Kiinstler-Inventare: all of his paintings in exchange for room Urkunden and board zur Geschichte der hollandischen Kunst des or some comparable benefit5. XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, The There were precedents for this type of Hague commer- 1918, V, 1837-45. 7 Arnold Houbraken: De groote schouburgh der Neder- cial relationship in the seventeenth lantschecentury konstschilders be- en schilderessen, 2nd ed., The cause the painters Emmanuel de HagueWitte I753, and II, 112-13. Nicolaes Berchem were involved in similar 8 See Sutton, agree- op. cit., (n. i), 9 and 145 document 14, which places De Hooch in Delft before August 5, 1652. See ments. However, there is one notable difference: also ibid., 9 and 245 document 18, a proclamation of the De Hooch is the only one of the three artistsartist's betrothal who recorded on I2 April I654 in which De is specifically identified as a dienaar. De Hooch Witte is once was again living in Rotterdam. Ibid., 9 also notes that upon his entry into the Delft guild in Sep- employed by a >>patron< but the surviving tember I655, docu- De Hooch could only afford to pay part of ments unequivocally indicate that their the entrance relation- fee required of artists born outside the city.

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3. Pieter de Hooch, The courtyard of a house in Delft, with a woman and child, i658, London, The (Reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees, The National Gallery, London)

Whatever the nature of De Hooch's and De la Hooch's painting of a maid in a garden, carrying a Grange's relationship, it is possible that it influ- shallow straw basket filled with beans (now in the enced the former's decision to depict servants fre- Kunstmuseum in Basel), is particularly revealing quently in his art, and even his choice of sym- (Fig. 1)9. At first glance, the representation appears bolism in this regard. From this standpoint, De since they are depicted wearing them in a number of 9 For this painting, see ibid., cat. no. 45. The painting iscontemporary paintings, including ones by De Hooch; also discussed in Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Paul H. see Sutton, op. cit. (n. I), pls., 115, 127, I 35; color pls., Boerlin: Im Lichte Hollands; Hollindische Malerei des XI, XIII. Not all of these women are wearing actual ear- 17. Jahrhunderts aus den Sammlungen des Fiirsten von rings. In many instances, the jewelry is attached to their Liechtenstein und aus Schweizer Besitz, exh. cat., bonnets (which could be the case with the painting by Kunstmuseum, Basel 1987, 146, cat. no. 47. There it isDe Hooch under consideration here); see for example, stated that the woman with the basket must be recog- Gerrit Dou's The Young Mother in the Gemildegalerie nized as the mistress of the house because she wears in Berlin-Dahlem. This picture is illustrated in Werner pearl earrings. However, the fact that the woman is Sumowski: Gemaiilde der Rembrandt-Schiiler, Landau/ wearing earrings does not necessarily mean that she is Pfalz 1983, I, 583 no. 286. For the wide variety of hats, the mistress of the house. As strange as it seems, maids bonnets, etc...., worn by women in Dutch seventeenth- evidently wore pearl earrings in the seventeenth century century paintings, see Maria Meyer: Das Kostiim auf

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms to be commonplace. The maid has evidently serve their employers obediently with fear and picked the beans from the tall stalks behind her and trembling, accepting their station in life as a divine is shown returning to the house. Yet on the shutter calling, >>dat Godt dese gehoorsaemheyt ende of the window closest to the viewer is a portrait of dienst die sy aen hare Meesters ende Vrouwen be- a man in sixteenth-century costume, wearing the wijsen/ selfs sal vergelden<<'5. Clearly, the relation- gold chain and pendant of the famous Order of the ship described in contemporary literature is an ar- Golden Fleece'0. This little portrait is completely chetypal one. As the recent work of several social unexpected in this ostensibly straightforward con- historians has confirmed, the writings of Cats, text and besides, to my knowledge, portraits were Wittewrongel, and their contemporaries on the not actually painted on window shutters in the subject of master/servant relationships presents an seventeenth century. The very incongruity of this ideal vision which was rarely reflected in daily life motif is further underscored by the fact that the at that time. Since seventeenth-century Dutch man wears a sixteenth-century costume adorned paintings of virtuous housewives and maids reflect with the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, this literary ideal, we can conclude that the domes- which only confirms that De Hooch included the tic world depicted in these works of art is to a large portrait for a purely symbolic purpose. extent fictitious. Thus the lowly maid in De Peter Sutton's reluctant observation that the Hooch's painting was probably intended to con- painting might relate to an emblem from Jacob Cats's Proteus ofte minne-beelden verandert in niederliindischen Bildern; zum Modewandelim 17.Jah- sinne-beelden (1627) would appear to deserve rhundert, Miinster 1986, 20-36. 10 For the Order of the Golden Fleece, see Het Gulden stronger support". In its pictura a couple in a gar- Vlies; vijf eeuwen kunst en geschiedenis, exh. cat., den point to a beanstalk which has grown so tall Stedelijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Bruges 1962. that it extends precariously beyond its stake (fig. " Sutton, op. cit. (n. I), 70 n. 85, cites the emblem by Cats and states that >>while, here again, it is conceivable a 2). The subscriptio likens the beanstalk's ultimately similar meaning was intended in the painting, De injurious rapid growth to the danger of unbridled Hooch's general disregard for such >disguised< refer- ambition in the quest for social status". The sig- ences suggests the possibility is remote.< 12 Jacob Cats: Proteus ofte minne-beelden verandert in nificance of this emblem for our understanding of sinnebeelden, Rotterdam 1627, II, 42-3 no. 21. De Hooch's painting cannot be doubted. The con- '3 Ten-Doesschate Chu and Boerlin, op. cit. (n. 9), 146, ceit that it expresses, comparing the growth of the cite a recent interpretation of the work by Yvonne Boer- lin-Brodbeck, >>Pieter de Hooch, Frau mit Bohnenkorb plant to the dangers of pursuing rank, is illustrated im Gemiisegirtchen,<< Bildbetrachtung im Kunst- in the painting by the tall beanstalks in combina- museum Basel, 30 May 1979. I have not been able to lo- tion with the portrait on the window shutter of a cate Boerlin-Brodbeck's study but it is summarized in the catalogue entry. Her interpretation of the painting man wearing the chain of the Order of the Golden seems too excessively complicated as various motifs are Fleece, the very epitome of status. said to symbolize the course of human life and trans- ience. In light of the presence and meaning of the motifs 14 See for example, Jacob Cats: Houwelyck. Dat is de of the beanstalks and portrait in De Hooch's paint- gansche gelegentheyt des echten staets, Middelburgh ing, the inclusion of a servant cannot be coinciden- 1625; Petrus Wittewrongel: Oeconomia Christiana ofte tal. In contrast to the symbols of rank and status, Christelicke huys-houdinghe, 3rd ed., Amsterdam 166i. For domestic conduct books, see Louis B. Wright: Mid- the motif of the maid carrying the basket filled dle-class culture in Elizabethan England, 3rd ed., New with beans may have been meant to allude to York 1980, 201-27; Julius Hoffmann: Die ,Hausvater- humility'3. Numerous prescriptions concerning literatur< und die ,Predigten iiber den christlichen Hausstand<. Lehre vom Hause und Bildung fiir das servant behavior were published during the seven- hiusliche Leben im i6., 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, teenth century, most notably in the enormously Weinheim/Berlin I959; L. F. Groenendijk: De nadere popular household treatises of the day, domestic reformatie van het gezin; de visie van Petrus Wittew- conduct books'4. In these books and related rongel op de Christelijke huishouding, Dordrecht I984. i5 Wittewrongel: op. cit., (n. 14), I, 219-20. See further, works, servants were charged to be humble, ibid., to I. 205-20.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 4. Pieter de Hooch, Courtyard with an arbour in Delft, 1658, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, on loan from The Wrotham Collection vey particular associations about humility within the same plaque above the arch to the passageway the context of the overall symbolic program of the connecting the courtyard with the street. As Cor- picture, with its allusions to the dangers of pursu- nelis Hofstede de Groot pointed out long ago, ing rank and status. these plaques were modeled on a surviving one The concept of humility, symbolized in the which actually hung over the entrance to the painting in Basel by the lowly maid, is literally ex- pressed in two other works by De Hooch that de- '6 For these paintings see Sutton, op. cit. (n. i), cat. nos. 33, pict servants: The maid and child in a courtyard in 34. See also Neil Maclaren: The National Gallery The National Gallery, London, and Figures drink- catalogues: the Dutch school, London i960, 188-90o cat. ing in a courtyard with an arbor, formerly on loan no. 83 5. See also Peter C. Sutton et al.: Masters ofseven- teenth-century Dutch , exh. cat., to The National Gallery, Edinburgh (Figs. 3 and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia 1984, cat. no. 4). These two paintings, both monogrammed and 53. Obviously, these two paintings are not pendants dated 1658, are actually variants because they de- owing to differences in size and composition. At this time, that is the late I65o's, De Hooch painted other pict a similar setting: a courtyard to a house, pre- courtyard scenes that include maids; see Sutton: op. cit., sumably in Delft'6. Moreover, they both include (n. i), pls. 34, 35, 39, 40.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Hieronymusdael Cloister in Delft during the Like the woman in the print after Massys, the girl seventeenth century'7. It is inscribed: >>Dit is in in the picture by De Hooch is not actually picking sint hieronimus daelle/ wildt v tot pacientie en fleas from the animal she holds. However, De lydtsaemheijt begeeven/wandt wij muetten eerst Hooch possibly intended to allude to representa- daellen/ willen wij worden verheeven i614<'8. tions of sloth by depicting the dog in her lap and Although both pictures depict a similar cour- also by the very fact that he has represented a child tyard the differences between them are obvious because in the seventeenth century, artists often and meaningful. In the London painting, thought used children to illustrate this vice". It would be to be the later of the two variants, the view through foolhardy to argue that every image of a child in the archway has been changed. Furthermore, the seventeenth-century Dutch art holding a dog in his archway itself and the patio have different or her lap refers to indolence. Yet in the context of brickwork and the courtyard is now composed of De Hooch's picture, with its depiction of a maid of two walls and also includes steps leading to a questionable behavior, the motif of the girl and door'9. However, the most significant changes in- dog as a symbol of sloth would provide a fitting volve the figures that are represented. In the earlier comment on the woman's neglect of duty. variant, we see a consisting of a The servant and child in the London variant con- maid - identifiable as such by her plain clothing - duct themselves in the very opposite manner, one who stands holding a wine glass beside a table that befits their station in life. Here a sober, dili- where two men are drinking and smoking. A little gent maid holding an earthenware dish descends a girl with a seemingly besotted expression is seated small set of stairs with a young girl. Their modest, directly under the archway, with a dog in her lap. humble behavior seems diametrically opposed to In the London painting, this scene of merriment is replaced by one showing a child holding the hand '7 C. Hofstede de Groot: A catalogue raisonne' of the of a woman, who can also be identified as a maid works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seven- because of her simple costume20. teenth century, reprint ed., Teaneck/Cambridge 1976, I, The maid depicted in the canvas formerly on loan 557 cat. no. 291. i8 This transcription is taken from ibid. Maclaren: op. cit. to Edinburgh is hardly a paradigm of good be- (n. i6), i88, translates the inscription as follows: >This havior. She stands in the company of two men who is St. Jerome's vale, if you wish to repair to patience and meekness. For we must first descend if we wish to be are drinking and smoking as she inspects a glass of raised.<< Maclaren also notes that the inscriptions on the wine. Perhaps the group's moral laxity is under- plaques in both variants do not exactly follow that on scored by a soldier's coat and bandolier which the existing one. hang suggestively from the window shutter at the 19 For these changes, see Sutton et al.: op. cit. (n. 16), 219. 20o Ibid., states that the woman is the girl's mother, a possi- far left. The little girl with the dog in her lap seated bility that cannot be excluded. at the entrance to the passageway could very well 21 See Jan Baptist Bedaux and Peter Hecht: >Ter Borch 2,<< provide further moral commentary upon the Hollands Maandblad, CXXXVI, 1974, 41. See also Konrad Renger: Lockere Gesellschaft, Berlin 1970, 85; character of the merry trio. It is possible - though H.-J. Raupp et al.: Wort und Bild; Buchkunst und by no means certain - that this motif is meant to re- Druckgraphik in den Niederlanden im i6. und I7. Jah- call traditional images of sloth. A sixteenth-cen- rhundert, exh. cat., Belgisches Haus, Cologne 198 I, cat. nos. 40; Hans-Joachim Raupp: >>Ansitze zu einer tury print by Frans Huys after Cornelis Massys Theorie der Genremalerei in den Niederlanden im 17. provides pictorial equivalents to contemporary Jahrhundert,<< Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte, XLVI, proverbs about sluggishness, including one depict- 1983, 414. 22 See Susan Koslow: >>Frans Hals's Fischerboys: exemp- ing a woman with a dog in her lap (Fig. 5)". The in- lars of idleness,< The Art Bulletin, LVII, 1975, 429; scription, which suggests that sluggards would Raupp, op. cit. (see n. 21), 414. In a painting by Gerard rather delouse dogs than work, is based on the ter Borch, sloth is personified by a young boy who neg- lects his studies in order to delouse his dog; see ibid., Netherlandish proverb: >den hond vloyen,? 4I3ff., fig. 5. See also Bedaux and Hecht, op. cit., (see which means to squander time in idleness. n. 2z), 41.

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that of their >>sisters<< in the variant. In the tionforeg- to the inscription on the plaque because it round, a broom and cleaning pail are featured, states ob- that one must first descend if one wishes to jects which in this context most likely refer rise"23. to If viewed in relation to one another, the domestic virtue. paintings can be regarded as exempla of good and These two paintings, which depict contrasting bad behavior in servants, the plaque in both, with types of behavior, share the same inscribed plaqueits appeal for humility, providing the moralizing that advises one to be humble in life if one wants commentary'4. to rise in station. Regardless of the subtle nuances of meaning, it is significant that servants are 23 por- See n. x8 above. trayed in connection with this plaque. The 24 Lon- It is important to note once again that these paintings are don painting, with its virtuous maid, seems to not ex- pendants. Sutton et al., op. cit. (see n. i6), 2 19, state that, 4If a lesson was De Hooch's first concern, one press the idea of the inscription versus the variant would expect a more legible inscription<. This cannot formerly in Edinburgh where the maid's conduct be correct; Slatkes, op. cit. (n. 5), 124, had already recog- is anything but humble. Moreover, the fact that nized the the suitability of the inscription for the subject that is depicted. Moreover, he observed that the spatial virtuous maid in the London variant is shown de- movements in and out of the architectural framework of scending steps may have added significance in therela- painting echo the play on words in the inscription.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:30:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The focus here on one's station in life and the vir- however brief, as a servant. We can therefore as- tues most befitting it is much the same as that en- sume that De Hooch probably had a personal in- countered in De Hooch's painting in Basel of the terest in representing servants in his paintings. In maid in a garden. The artist's use of the motif of a the absence of other details about his life, nothing maid to provide commentary on these ideas is in- more can be inferred. triguing in light of his own possible employment,

Photos: I Offentliche Kunstsammlungen, Basel. - 2 Universiteits Bibliotheek, Amsterdam. - 3 National Gallery, London.- 4 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.- 5 , Amsterdam.

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