A Dutch Courtyard

In a walled courtyard beside a brick house, a pair of soldiers enjoy banter with a serving woman. As one of the soldiers takes a puff from a clay pipe, across the table, a bearded man wears a cuirass over a brown shirt, watching the serving woman drink beer from a pass-glass, a glass used in a traditional drinking game. A young girl appears from the right, delivering glowing embers for the soldiers' pipes. Through the brick wall, an open door reveals a path, leading past a wooded yard to a distant house, which is also visible above the wall. Behind the figures, is presumably a brick section of the old city wall of Delft. Similar to Woman and Child in a Courtyard, it is undoubted that these scenes were based on views from gardens behind the houses on the west side of the canal, the Oude Gracht. This area, the Binnenwatersloot, was where De Hooch's wife resided prior to their engagement, and presumably where De Hooch moved after their marriage. However, in this particular case, he has also exercised artistic freedom in portraying the pointed roof of the Nieuwe Kerk tower. Notably, he has omitted the small spires that typically adorn the top of the tower. De Hooch often creatively blended architectural motifs in an imaginative manner for compositional purposes. His empathy to the relationship of mothers to children may well have stemmed from the birth of his children, a son, born in 1655, and a daughter, born in 1656, both of which would have been the same age as the child represented in the painting, and many other works of his. This artwork represents one of the notable achievements within De Hooch's collection of works in the 'Delft Style' circa 1660. The structured and harmonious organisation of architectural and figurative elements creates a peaceful and quiet mood. The soft lighting of the scene, coupled with De Hooch's meticulous depiction of the buildings and courtyard's bricks and mortar, elevates the painting's naturalistic qualities. The balanced harmony is further derived from De Hooch's discernment of colour, skillfully incorporating accents of red, blue, and white throughout the composition. Notably impactful is the silky gleam of the young girl's blue dress, artfully conveyed through the application of yellow highlights. == Repainting ==

To achieve the sense of order, De Hooch carefully manipulated elements of the composition, strengthening the figural group. Thorough visual examination and infrared reflectography conducted at 1.2 to 2.5 microns reveal several modifications made by the artist. The little girl seems to have been elevated slightly and shifted approximately one inch to the right from her initial position thus, adjusted to overlap with the intersection of the house and the rear wall of the courtyard. This placement, along with the presence of the vibrant orange-red window shutter directly above her, works to diminish the pronounced sense of recession induced by the building's receding perspective. The paint remains in good condition, displaying minimal loss and only slight abrasion, with notable exceptions being the background trees and a one-inch strip along the top of the sky, which exhibit more severe abrasion. Additional areas affected by abrasion encompass the little girl's face, the woman's blue apron, and the cloak of the foreground-seated man. A restoration effort in 2002 addressed these abrasions, involving inpainting to seamlessly integrate them with the overall composition. Historical records indicate a previous treatment in Holland during the 1930s before the most recent restoration. == Mauritshuis replica ==

, The Hague. Note the difference in the absence of the second soldier. An autograph replica, said to be of lower quality, == Provenance ==

In a watercolour portrayal of a Dutch interior dated 1783 by W. J. Laquy, a German artist active in Amsterdam, the Washington painting is shown hanging on the rear wall. This illustration suggests that, at the time, the painting was housed in a Dutch-style gold frame. The painting's provenance before 1820 remains unknown, leaving uncertainty about the residence in which Laquy encountered it, and how it ended up in the possession of C.S Roos by 1820. Sales The first sale of the painting occurred in August 1820, where, from the ownership of C.S Roos, through the art dealer R.W.P de Vries, the painting was purchased by Isaac Van Eyck for either 600 or 750 florins. The next sale is listed as ownership transferring to a Mr. Mason after a sale in Paris. Following this, the painting belonged to various members of the Rothschild banking family, starting with Baron Lionel de Rothschild who acquired the painting after an 1842 or earlier sale. Through inheritance, the piece passed to his son, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st baron Rothschild, who through exchange or sale passed ownership to his brother, baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild, for Halton House, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire. Upon Alfred de Rothchild's death in 1918, the painting was bequeathed to his illegitimate daughter, Almina Victoria, Countess of Carnarvon, who sold the piece to Duveen Brothers, Inc., in 1924 who flipped the painting in November of that year to Andrew W. Mellon, a prominent politician and later philanthropist. In December 1934 A Dutch Courtyard was deeded to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, who gifted the painting to the National Gallery of Art in 1937. ==See also==