4 88 PIETER DE HOOCH SECT. the middle of the picture, facing the spectator. She has a basket of pears in her lap. To her left is a little child showing a pear to a servant-girl who, seen in full light, but with her back turned to the spectator, is taking something out of a press. The woman, who is speaking to the girl, wears a little red jacket trimmed with fur, a tucked-up apron, and a white kerchief; at her feet on the right is a dish of fruit. Beside her on the right is the fireplace, in which a kettle hangs over a peat fire. Above hangs a picture of Lot in his drunkenness. To the left is a shelf with plates and hanging jugs. The light comes through a window draped with red curtains on the left, and illumines also a plate of bread and a jug which stand on a table in the left foreground as well as the tiles of the floor. Signed : " P de Hooch " ; canvas, 27^ inches by 25 inches. Sales, P. Locquet, September 22, 1783, No. 183 (220 florins, Gilde- meester). J. Gildemeester Jansz, in Amsterdam, June n, 1800 (185 florins, or 17, Roos). E. W. Lake, London, 1845 (66, Nieuwenhuis). Berger, in London, June 16, 1900, No. 108 (1102 : IDS., Dowdes- well). In the catalogue of 100 paintings, in the possession of the dealer Ch. Sedelmeyer of Paris, 1901, No. 20. 39. INTERIOR. To the right is a woman peeling potatoes at a window. On the left a girl, with a mug in her right hand and a glass on a tray in her left, comes through an open door at the back : she is looking at a dog. Through the door is seen a man in a landscape with houses. On the extreme right is another open door in the side wall. The floor is paved with black and white marble ; the walls are white and adorned with a piece of gilt leather behind the woman. The window shutters and curtains are red ; a portrait hangs above the gilt leather, and to the left of the door is a press. This picture belongs to the late period. Canvas, 21 inches by 26 inches. Sale. Max Kahn, March 3, 1879, No. 31. In the possession of the dealer Ch. Sedelmeyer, in Paris, in 1888 (according to Bredius), and in December 1892. 40. WOMAN AND SERVANT-GIRL BY THE FIRE- SIDE. A woman, wearing a black jacket, light skirt, and blue apron, stands in the middle of a room facing the spectator. She has a basket in her right hand, and speaks to a servant-girl who kneels in the left fore- ground, with her back to the spectator, and lays peat on the fire. Above the fireplace is a mirror or picture. To the woman's right is a little dog. In the right background an open door leads into a well-lighted ante-room, which opens upon a canal bordered with trees. According to Bredius, the picture is late and cold in tone, like the picture in the Van der Hoop collection (2). Signed in full and dated 1656 (according to the catalogues of Sedel- meyer and Lippmann), but certainly later; canvas, 23 inches by 27^ inches. See Havard, pp. 105-6. Sales. Meffre, in Paris, 1863.
