Mother Nursing Her Child

c. 1674/1676

Pieter de Hooch Dutch, 1629-1684

On View

Dutch Golden Age, Level 3, South Wing

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About the Artwork

In the Protestant Netherlands, themes which had traditionally been favored by Catholic artists, such as the Madonna and Child, were replaced by depictions of domestic virtue. This painting illustrates two qualities highly valued in Dutch culture: an orderly home and a nurturing mother. De Hooch favored this sort of subject matter during the last thirty years of his career. As is evident in this painting, he paid careful attention to the effects of natural lighting within a geometrically defined interior space. Depictions of Dutch women within the confines of the home were more than plentiful in the seventeenth century, but de Hooch's works are easily recognizable for the sensitivity with which he portrayed his figures of mothers with their children.

Title Mother Nursing Her Child

Artwork Date c. 1674/1676

Artist Pieter de Hooch

Life Dates 1629-1684

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Dutch

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 31 3/8 × 23 1/2 inches (79.7 × 59.7 cm) Framed: 40 3/8 × 32 1/4 × 3 3/8 inches (102.6 × 81.9 × 8.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Gift of James E. Scripps

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 89.39

Markings

Signed Signed lower right on rocker of cradle: P. d Hoogh

Inscriptions ------

Marks NIEUWEN HUYS appears on the inside of the stretcher in chalk.

Provenance

Comte Montgermont (Paris, France)

James E. Scripps (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1889-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Catalogue of the Scripps Collection. Detroit, 1889, no. 74. [as Peter de Hoogh].

"The Scripps Old Masters," The Collector 2, no. 13 (May 1, 1891): pp. 149-152, p. 150 [as by Peter de Hoogh, “A Dutch Interior”].

Scripps, James E. Handbook of the Paintings Ancient and Modern, Belonging to the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1895, p. 34, no. 64 [as by Peter de Hoogh, “A Dutch Interior”].

Detroit Museum of Art Handbook of Paintings by the Old Masters. Detroit, 1910, pp. 43-44, no. 64 (ill.).

Bryant, L.M. What Pictures to See in America. New York, 1915, p. 234.

Bulletin of the DIA 1, no. 7 (1920): (cover ill.).

Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and Contemporary Arts and Crafts. Detroit, 1920, p. 52, no. 44 (ill.).

Loan Exhibition of Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Detroit, 1925, cat. 7.

Brière-Misme, C. "Tableaux inédits ou peu connus de Pieter de Hooch." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1927): no. 15, pp. 368-380, no. 16, pp. 51-79; 258-286, cited on p. 266.

Valentiner, W.R. "Pieter de Hooch. Part Two", Art in America, vol. 15, 1927, pp. 67-77, esp.

Valentiner, W.R. Pieter de Hooch, des Meisters Gemälde. Berlin and Leipzig, 1929, pp. 113, 282 (ill.).

Ninth Loan Exhibition of Dutch Genre and Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1929, p. xv, cat. 37.

Heil, W. "Holländische Ausstellung im Detroiter Museum." Pantheon 5 (1930): pp. 32-36, p. 34.

Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, cat. 104 (ill.).

Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat., John Herron Art Muesum. Indianapolis, 1937, cat. 33.

Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 63, no. 104.

Exhibition of Seventeenth Century Dutch Paintings. Exh. cat., McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario. London, Canada,1954, cat. 7.

Detroit Institute of Arts Checklist of Paintings. Detroit, 1970, no. 70.

Slive, S. European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, 1974, p. 108, note 3.

Sutton, P.C. Pieter de Hooch. Oxford, 1980, pp. 38, 108-109, no. 113, pl. 116.

Bandes, Susan J. Pursuits and Pleasures: Baroque Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Dennos Museum Center, Kalamazoo Art Museum, Kresge Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art. Battle Creek, 2003, (back cover ill.), pp. 10, 22, 23 (ill.).

Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2004, pp. 118-119.

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