Mujer pelando manzanas

This is a Dutch household around 1663, at the height of the Republic's prosperity, and de Hooch has built the whole picture out of quiet signals of comfort and order. A woman sits peeling apples in a corner lit from a tall window, and a small child stands close, watching her hands, learning the task. Look for the details that tell you this is a well-off, happy home. The fireplace is elaborately carved, the woman's clothes carry fur and embroidery, and on the pillar of the mantel there is a small cupid, the old sign of marital love. There is even a tiny black patch on the woman's temple, a fashionable remedy people wore then for eye trouble. De Hooch spent these years in Delft, in the same streets as Vermeer, and this kind of figure tucked into a sunlit corner is so close to Vermeer's work that in the 1860s, when a French critic first assembled Vermeer's catalogue, this very painting was mistakenly listed as one of his.