Artwork
A Housewife Instructing her Maid
A Housewife Instructing her Maid is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Pieter de Hooch. It dates from 1675 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
These objects, together with the interaction between the two women, signal the organization of household labor in a seventeenth‑century Dutch home.
The painting shows a housewife standing beside a young maid within a modest interior.
The composition includes a stove, a cradle, a serving tray and a fish, items that identify everyday domestic activities.
These objects, together with the interaction between the two women, signal the organization of household labor in a seventeenth‑century Dutch home.
As a genre scene, the work documents the routines and visual symbols of middle‑class domestic life, emphasizing the role of instruction and the management of household resources.
Technique & Style
A Housewife Instructing her Maid is an oil painting on canvas by Pieter de Hooch, dated 1675. The work is classified as a genre painting and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst. The medium is oil paint, consistent with de Hooch's mature practice of depicting domestic interiors with figures such as a maid, a woman, a stove, a cradle, a tray, and fish.
History & Provenance
Pieter de Hooch created the oil painting A Housewife Instructing her Maid in 1675. The work is a genre scene depicting a domestic interior that includes a maid, a woman, a stove, a cradle, a tray, and fish. It is currently held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
No specific details regarding the original commission, the initial owner, or the subsequent chain of ownership prior to its current location are provided in the available records.
A Housewife Instructing her Maid is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, as recorded in the work's Wikidata entry. The painting has been catalogued as part of that museum's holdings, with no accession number provided in the available sources.
No exhibition history is documented in the supplied sources for this work.
Overview
Pieter de Hooch's 1675 oil on canvas, A Housewife Instructing her Maid, captures a quiet domestic interaction. This genre painting, characteristic of the Dutch Golden Age, portrays a woman giving directions to her servant within a home setting. The artwork is presently part of the collection at the Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark.
Context
As a prominent painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Pieter de Hooch specialized in genre scenes that depicted daily life. He worked in Delft, a significant artistic center, where his contemporaries included Jan Vermeer. This painting exemplifies the era's appreciation for detailed, intimate portrayals of domesticity, reflecting the cultural values and artistic trends prevalent in the Netherlands during the late 17th century.
Artist & collection
Artist
Pieter Hendricksz. de Hooch (Dutch:; also spelled Hoogh or Hooghe; bapt. 20 December 1629 – after 1683), was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a…
