Woman with a bean basket in the vegetable garden
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| Woman with a bean basket in the vegetable garden |
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| Pieter de Hooch , ca.1660 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 69.7 x 58.7 cm |
| Art Museum Basel |
Woman with a bean basket in a vegetable garden is an oil painting by Pieter de Hooch that wasdated 1651,but the year 1661 is more likely. The 69.7 cm high and 58.7 cm wide picture shows a maid or landlady harvesting in the garden. Today it belongs to the collection of the Art Museum in Basel .
Image description
The painting Woman with a bean basket in a vegetable garden shows a scene in a summer garden . She is standing on the right edge of the picture on a piece of grass interspersed with weeds . In her hands she is holding a basket of beans that she must have picked from the bush behind her. Her simple clothes indicate her position as a maid , but the pearl earrings she wears could also indicate her position as the lady of the house. In the background of the picture there is also a nobly dressed man.
On the left is a house with wild grapevines hanging from its brick wall. The facade is interrupted by thin pilasters made of natural stone , small windows with red shutters and a door with a canopy in the background. On the shutter in the foreground is a portrait of a nobleman who wears the Order of the Golden Fleece . On the house wall there are borders with flowers and ornamental plants. The path separates the garden from the house. The stepped gable of another house can be seen behind the fence in the background . A large part of the picture is taken up by the sky , where only a cloud can be seen.
Pieter de Hooch was particularly careful in constructing the perspective . The vanishing lines run towards a small hole to the right of the center of the picture. The picture is precise in the reproduction of the plants and architecture, which are shown in detail. It is dominated by red and green tones, which are available in different shades.
Dating
The date on the painting is 1651. However, this may have been added later by someone else. This is supported by the fact that De Hooch was still painting tavern scenes with soldiers around 1651 . In addition, at this time Pieter de Hooch still had a much loose brushwork. This suggests that the woman with a bean basket in the vegetable garden was created around 1660, around the time he moved to Amsterdam .
Provenance
For a long time the woman with the bean basket was in the vegetable garden in an English collection. The picture was sold before 1912 and subsequently resold several times in quick succession, including twice through the Duveen art dealer in Paris . Finally, it was donated to the art museum in Basel by Max Geldner in 1958 .
literature
- Jeroen Giltaij: The magic of the everyday. Dutch painting from Adriaen Brouwer to Johannes Vermeer . Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2005. ISBN 3-7757-1522-3 .