Overview
The military gear, musical instruments, and songbooks scattered throughout this composition hint at worldly and romantic pursuits, but the chief subject of the painting is the illusionism of the near and far objects framed by the window. Optical challenges were particularly intriguing to artists working in the Dutch city of Delft. This painting would have blurred the boundaries of indoor and outdoor when hung in a collector’s home.
Provenance
Possibly Aernout Eelbrecht, Leiden, inventory 1683 ["Een stuck van Fabritius, daar van Aelst sijn degen ingeschildert heeft" (A piece by Fabritius, in which Van Aelst painted his sword); suggested by J. G. van Gelder in Rotterdam 1935]. Pierre Fouquet, Amsterdam, before 1802 [according to Mettra Fils, Notice d'une collection..., 1802, no. 111 and manuscript version cited below]. Mettra Fils (Magasin du Bureau des Arts), Berlin, by 1802 [see Notice d'une collection..., no. 111, ill., as Metzu [sic] and manuscript version of this catalogue in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Libri. PIct. A112];…
Exhibition history
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Vermeer Oorprong en Invloed Fabritus, De Hooch, De Witte, July 9 – October 9, 1935, p. 21, cat. 39, pl. 42. Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century, 1938, cat. 23, pl. 23, as Pieter de Hooch. New York, World's Fair, Masterpieces of Art, 1939, p. 98, cat. 203, as Pieter de Hooch. New York, Duveen Galleries, Paintings by the Great Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, October 8 – November 7, 1942; Art Institute of Chicago, November 18– December 16, 1942, cat. 3, as Hendrik van der Burch. Art Association of Montreal,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
