iv PIETER DE HOOCH 557 Sales. Comte de Perrcgaux, Paris, December 8, 1841, No. 14 (12,700 francs + 5 per cent, Paillet for Baron Delessert, according to Sm.). F. Delessert, Paris, March 15, 1869, No. 37 (41,000 francs). Now in the National Gallery, London, No. 794 in the 1906 catalogue. 291. VIEW INTO THE COURTYARD OF THE FORMER CLOISTER OF HIERONYMUSDALE, IN DELFT. Sm. 50; de G. 38. On the left of a courtyard is a porch built of red brick and stone, with an inscription let into the wall above. A woman, with her back to the spectator, stands in full light within the passage. To the right of the porch is a high fence with a vine growing over it ; there is an open door in the wall to the right, from which a few steps lead down into the paved courtyard. A woman carrying a dish in her left hand descends the steps, holding a little girl by her right hand. In the right foreground are a pail and a broom. The portal with the inscription comes from the old Hieronymusdale Cloister, which stood in the Oude Delft, diagonally opposite the Nieuwstraat in Delft. The inscription, so far as it is legible, runs thus : " . . . e hyronimus dale | wilt . . . ntie . . . samheijt | begheven . . . wy | eerst dalle wijlle wij w . . . den | verheven anno 1614." This inscription is still extant and reads in full thus : Dit is in sint hieronimus daelle wildt v tot pacientie en lydtsaemheijt begeeven vvandt wij muetten eerst daellen willen wy worden verheeven 1614. "The composition, however uninteresting in description, is rendered in the picture magically attractive" (Sm.). [Compare 299.] Signed to the left on the archway "P. D. H. A 1658 " j canvas, 29 inches by 23^ inches. Mentioned by Waagen in the Peel Collection (i. 403). Engraved by Rajon. Sales. De Smeth van Alphen, in Amsterdam, August I, 1810, No. 46 (2075 florins, M. Backer or Yperen). Backer's widow sold it in 1825 (for 10,500 florins, or .945) to Emmerson, by whom it was sold to Sir Robert Peel (Sm.). Purchased for the nation with the Peel Collection in 1871. Now in the National Gallery, London, No. 835 in the 1906 catalogue. 292. WOMAN SPINNING IN A COURTYARD. Sm. 27 ; de G. 40. In a courtyard, seen in the light of evening, a woman sits to the right near a house door, with her back to the spectator. She wears a black bodice and red skirt, and is occupied at her spinning-wheel. From the left a servant-girl, who wears a yellow bodice and blue skirt, steps towards her, carrying a pail and a jug. Houses at the back are seen above the wooden fence which encloses the court. To the right, beyond the houses, rises the steeple of the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft, and beside it is the tower of the Delft Town Hall. Canvas, 25^ inches by 21 inches. Mentioned by Waagen (ii. n). Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1886, No. 98.
