Pieter de Hooch, Dutch, 1629-1684 or after
Title: Players at Tric-trac
Date: c.1652-1655
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions:
45 x 33.5 cm
Signed: centre right: P. de hooch
Credit Line: Purchased, 1892
Object Number: NGI.322
DescriptionDe Hooch specialised in depicting elegantly dressed young men and women playing games or sharing a drink in rich interiors or sunlit courtyards. The artist was a leading practitioner of the Delft style of painting, characterised by spatial illusion, the use of perspective and the imitation of natural light. Although Vermeer perfected these features, de Hooch was probably the first to combine and master these effects. In his first few years in Delft, however, De Hooch painted soldiers idling their time away in guardrooms, as shown in Players at Tric-trac, which depicts a young woman entertaining herself with two smoking and drinking officers. Works like these illustrate the artist’s debt to Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout, Ludolf de Jongh and Gerard ter Borch.
De Hooch was the son of a Rotterdam bricklayer and probably trained under the landscapist Nicolaes Berchem in the late 1640s. An archival document dating to 1652 describes de Hooch as both a painter and a servant to Justus de la Grange, a linen merchant in Leiden. The inventory of the latter’s collection, drawn up in 1655, lists no fewer than 11 paintings by De Hooch.
March 2016
De Hooch was the son of a Rotterdam bricklayer and probably trained under the landscapist Nicolaes Berchem in the late 1640s. An archival document dating to 1652 describes de Hooch as both a painter and a servant to Justus de la Grange, a linen merchant in Leiden. The inventory of the latter’s collection, drawn up in 1655, lists no fewer than 11 paintings by De Hooch.
March 2016
ProvenanceLeiden, 11 August 1789, H. Twent sale, lot 27; Delfos; Amsterdam, 19 October 1801, Baron van Coehoorn sale, lot 28; Coclers; Art Market, London, 1879; Christie's, 25 June 1887, A. J. Cliffe sale, lot 87; purchased, Haines Brothers, London, 1892
Exhibition HistoryCentenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 3 September - 15 December 1998; Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, 17 December 1998 - 27 February 1999
Communication: Visualising the Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, 25 June - 16 October 2011; Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, 27 October - 12 December 2011; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 23 December 2011 - 14 March 2012
Pieter De Hooch, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, 11 October 2019 - 16 February 2020
Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 3 September - 15 December 1998; Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, 17 December 1998 - 27 February 1999
Communication: Visualising the Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, 25 June - 16 October 2011; Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, 27 October - 12 December 2011; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 23 December 2011 - 14 March 2012
Pieter De Hooch, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, 11 October 2019 - 16 February 2020
Label TextDe Hooch specialised in depicting elegantly dressed men and women playing games, or sharing a drink, in rich interiors or sunlit courtyards. He was a leading practitioner of the so-called ‘Delft school’, a style characterised by spatial illusion, the use of perspective and the imitation of natural light. Although Vermeer perfected this style, De Hooch was probably the first to combine and master these effects. In his first few years in Delft, however, De Hooch painted soldiers spending idle time in guardrooms, as shown in Players at Tric-Trac, which reveals his debt to painters from his native Rotterdam.