Pieter de Hooch - Interior with Women beside a Linen Chest [1663]

Two women are standing in front of an open linen cupboard. They are putting the ironed linen away. Their clothes are elegant. The girl is wearing a shiny jacket and a trimmed petticoat. The lady of the house is dressed in a fur-trimmed jacket. The women have turned their skirts under to stop them getting dirty. In the open doorway a small child is playing with a kolf stick (a sort of hockey stick) and a ball. Kolf was a typical boy’s game in the seventeenth century. The child is therefore a little boy, despite its dress. Furthermore, he is also wearing a typical boy's collar with square corners.

Everything in the picture tells us that this is the house of respectable people. The house has more than one room for a start. Furthermore, the linen chest is a real showpiece. The arched panels on the doors and the ebony decoration indicate that the cupboard was made in around 1650. The same cupboard and the figure of Perseus above the door also appear in another painting by De Hooch from 1658. Pieter de Hooch made this painting soon after he had moved to Amsterdam from Delft. At this time he began to paint more opulent interiors than he had in Delft.