iv PIETER DE HOOCH 495 68. Lady sewing, with a Servant-Girl. In an interior, a lady with a fur-trimmed jacket sits at her needlework. A nurse, holding a child by the hand, brings a basket. A dog is by the open window in the background. Signed ; 26^ inches by 23 inches. Sale, In London, February 6, 1897, No. 78. 69. PIG-KILLING IN A HOUSE. In a cellar-room, a pig's carcase hangs from the cross-bar of a ladder. In the right background near the wall a little girl holds a pig's bladder in her right hand. In the background the mother is busy at a table preparing the animal's intestines; another daughter is beside her. Behind her to the right is a man with a pipe in his mouth. A false signature, "Maes f.," is on the kettle. Canvas, 31 J inches by 26 inches. Bought in Paris, 1879, by the Berlin Museum. Described in the 1898 catalogue, under reserve, as a work by N. Maes, suggested by Rembrandt's "Dead Ox" in the Louvre. In all probability it is an early work by P. de Hooch. Now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, No. 918^ in the 1904 catalogue. 70. Pig-killing. In the left foreground of an interior stands a woman at a table, cleaning intestines. In the centre a pig's carcase hangs on a ladder placed against a cupboard. To the right sits a boy playing with the bladder. A pointer stands beside a pail. Canvas, 20 inches by 25 inches. Sale. Herman Aarentz, of Deventer, in Amsterdam, April II, 1770, No. 23 (150 florins, Delfos). 71. MOTHER COMBING HER CHILD'S HAIR. Sm. 3, 4, 67 ; Suppl. I ; de G. 5. In a homely bedroom sits a woman in profile to the right. She wears a fur-trimmed jacket, and is combing the hair of a little girl who stands before her. Behind her is a wooden bed with curtains ; a child's chair stands in the right foreground. The door on the left, near which is a little dog, opens into a second room, through the door of which is seen a garden with slender trees. This is one of the finest pictures by De Hooch in Holland. [Compare 74.] Signed on the chair " Pr d' hooch"; canvas on panel, 21 inches by 24 inches. Wrongly attributed to E. Boursse in the 1887 catalogue of the Rijksmuseum ; the signature is absolutely genuine, and is wrongly described as doubtful in the 1905 catalogue. Sales. Gerard Braamcamp, Amsterdam, July 31, 1771, No. 88 (610 florins, Van der Dussen), (compare also Hoet, ii. 504). J. L. van der Dussen, in Amsterdam, October 31, 1774, No. 7 (750 florins). J. J. de J. J. de Faesch, in Amsterdam, July 3, 1833, No. 20 (3500 florins plus 7^ per cent, bought in ; or 2590 florins, Jansen for Moget). Amsterdam, April 24, 1838, No. 18 (3311 florins, Brondgeest).
