This week I subbed for an art teacher and found a book in his room about Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) a Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden Age (an epoch I am fascinated with). He was a contemperary with one of my favorite artists of all time Jan Vermeer but I had not heard much about Hooch, frankly there is not much known about him. He painted during the Dutch Golden age. He was born in Rotterdam and soon moved to Delf where he joined the Delf school (with Vermeer). Soon the lucrative draw of Amsterdam drew him to the thriving city to continue his work. Hooch painted on a very symbolic level emphasizing certain moral aspects of the Netherlands, particularly on family life; and more particularly on the life of women. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is a phrase that captures much of his painting. He painted much on the theme of the domesticated life of Dutch women. Dutch merchant men were constantly traveling. Their lives described by Daniel Defoe in 1728 as, "the carryers of the World, the middle persons in Trade, the Factors and Brokers of Europe: they buy to sell again, take in to send out; and the greatest part of their vast commerce consists in being supply's from all parts of theWorld, that they may supply all the World again." While men were doing this the women need to keep the house clean and control finances, etc. Many of the paintings have a theme of cleanliness and order in the house. His paintings show children being raised right and then moving into the world. Hooch emphasized the importance of Dutch women and the virtues of domesticated life. His paintings were also moral lessons and sometimes showed the perils of immoral lives as well as Dutch painting was often proverbial in scope.
See some of his paintings from the Web Gallery of Art: http://www.wga.hu/index1.html
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