Une femme avec une servante

Pieter de Hooch made his name in Delft in the 1650s with quiet interiors, sunlight crossing a tiled floor, a doorway opening onto a courtyard, everyday life given a calm order. This one is late, painted in 1675 after he had moved to Amsterdam, where his rooms grew grander and his touch a little heavier. A well-dressed young woman sits preparing food by a window that looks onto a canal, and her maid stands waiting with a basket, the two of them held in the light that falls from the right. He kept returning to this pairing of mistress and servant all through his career. The painting hangs in Lille, in northern France.