''A Woman Peeling Apples'' (c. 1663) is a painting by the
Dutch Golden Age painter
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Republi ...
Pieter de Hooch
Pieter de Hooch (, also spelled "Hoogh" or "Hooghe"; 20 December 1629 (baptized) – 24 March 1684 (buried)) was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary of ...
in the
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Description
It is a
genre painting showing a quiet domestic scene from the time, like most of de Hooch's works. The elaborate fireplace and fur and embroidery in the mother's clothes show a prosperous household, and the
cupid between the two figures implies a happy one. Its sensitive handling of light—in particular, natural light filtered into an otherwise unlit interior space—led 19th-century
art historians
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...
to attribute it to
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
, with whose work the painting does bear strong similarities. However, Vermeer's work typically portrayed a woman working alone instead of a family scene as in ''A Woman Peeling Apples''. Most scholars also now believe that de Hooch was influenced by Vermeer instead of Vermeer by de Hooch.
The painting is in
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
on canvas (67 cm × 55 cm). It is also sometimes referred to as ''A Woman Peeling Apples, with a Small Child''. This painting was documented by
Hofstede de Groot
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator.
Life
He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...
in 1908, who wrote:
33. WOMAN PEELING APPLES. de G. 55. In the right-hand corner of a room sits a woman, facing the spectator. She wears a black velvet jacket trimmed with fur, a red skirt, and a white apron. In her lap she holds a basket of apples which she is peeling. She holds out a long rind in her right hand to a little girl standing to the left and seen in profile. A tub is on the floor at the woman's feet. To the left is a fireplace with a kettle on the fire. The fireplace is lined with Delft tiles, and is enclosed with pilasters worked in low relief. Behind the woman hangs a mirror in a black frame. The sunlight enters through a window above to the right and illumines the wall and a corner of the mirror. The floor is composed of brown and white tiles. The picture is in a very dirty condition. Its general effect is fine. It is somewhat similar in style to the Weissbach picture (4), but not so charming in subject; it is Canvas, 26 inches by 21 inches. Mentioned by Waagen, Supplement, p. 87, in the collection of the Marquis of Hertford
The titles of Earl of Hertford and Marquess of Hertford have been created several times in the peerages of England and Great Britain.
The third Earldom of Hertford was created in 1559 for Edward Seymour, who was simultaneously created Baron B ...
, who bought it from C. Perrier in 1848 (for £283 : 10s.). Described by Bürger, Gazette des Beaux-Arts
The ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'' was a French art review, founded in 1859 by Édouard Houssaye, with Charles Blanc as its first chief editor. Assia Visson Rubinstein was chief editorial secretary under the direction of George Wildenstein from 19 ...
, 1866, vol. xxi. p. 561, as a Vermeer, No. 16. Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1893, No. 55. Now in the Wallace collection, London, No. 23 in the 1901 catalogue.entry 33 for Woman Peeling Apples
in Hofstede de Groot, 1908
See also
*
List of paintings by Pieter de Hooch
The following is an incomplete list of paintings by Pieter de Hooch that are generally accepted as autograph by Peter C. Sutton and other sources. The list is more or less in order of creation, starting from around 1648 when Pieter de Hooch began ...
References
External links
Wallace Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman Peeling Apples, A
1663 paintings
Paintings in the Wallace Collection
Paintings by Pieter de Hooch
Paintings of children
Paintings of women