The Greeting
Pieter de Hooch·c. 1675
Historical Context
De Hooch's Greeting from around 1675 represents his late Amsterdam period, when his subject matter had shifted from the intimate domestic scenes of his Delft years toward the more elaborate social subjects of Amsterdam's wealthy merchant class. By 1675, de Hooch had been in Amsterdam for over a decade, and his work reflected the grander scale and more explicitly social orientation of his Amsterdam clientele. The greeting gesture — a social ritual of recognition and courtesy — provides the same kind of threshold moment between private and social worlds that de Hooch had explored in his Delft doorways and courtyards, here transposed to a more explicitly social and fashionable setting.
Technical Analysis
De Hooch's oil on canvas shows his continued mastery of architectural perspective and light effects, though with the richer, more ornate palette and grander spatial settings characteristic of his later Amsterdam works.
Provenance
Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin, at least by 1890.[1] Berthold Richter, Berlin, in 1892. Gottfried von Preyer [1807-1901], Vienna; purchased 1902 by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2016 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] Von Kaufmann lent the work to the exhibition _Austellung von Werken der Niederländischen Kunst des Siebzehnten Jahrhunderts_, in Berlin, in 1890.
