Follower of Pieter de Hooch

The Bedroom

Details

Follower of Pieter de Hooch
The Bedroom
bears initials 'P.D.H.' (lower left, on the rail of the table)
oil on canvas
20¾ x 24 in. (52.8 x 61 cm.)

Provenance

Six van Hillegom, Amsterdam (descendant of Jan Six, Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and a friend of Rembrandt).
brought to England by Chaplin, before 1833.
Edward Lloyd, Manchester, circa 1842-57, by descent to
Lewis Lloyd, Monks Orchard, Beckenham, Kent, by descent to
Captain E. N. F. Lloyd, Shaw Hill, Melksham, Wiltshire; Christie's, London, 30 April 1937, where purchased by
Knoedler and Co. Inc., New York, from whom purchased by
The Philadelphia Museum of Art; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 29
February 1956, lot 17, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., 1833, IV, p. 229, no. 36, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.
J. Smith, A Supplement to Catalogue Raisonné, etc., 1842, IX, p. 565, no. 11, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc.,, 1907, I, p. 499, no. 84, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.
P. C. Sutton, Pieter de Hooch, 1980, p. 87, no. 40C, under 'Accepted Works'.

Exhibited

Manchester, Art Treasures Exhibition, 1857, p. 71, no. 1060, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.
Raleigh, N. C., North Carolina State Art Society Gallery and Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Paintings by living masters of the past, October - November 1943, illustrated, as 'Pieter de Hooch'. New York, Knoedler Galleries, Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, 1945, no. 5, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.
Atlanta, Georgia, The High Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition, 1945, as 'Pieter de Hooch'.

Lot Essay

The present painting is listed by Sutton (op. cit.) as an autograph replica, however, he has since rejected this attribution. He believes that it was painted by a seventeenth century follower of Pieter de Hooch of which two autograph version are extant; one in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe and the other in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. According to Valentiner (see W. R. Valentiner, 'Die Austellung holländischer Gemälde in New York', Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, 1910, 3, pp. 5-12) the Karlsruhe version is of superior quality to the Washington picture but neither can be identified as the original.

The present composition differs from the Washington picture in that the bedspread is left plain and does not have a checkered pattern. The Karlruhe picture's bedspread is also left plain, however, the mirror hanging on the right wall depicts more elaborate decoration to its frame which is omitted in the Washington and present composition.

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