젊은 부부가 있는 실내

By 1662 Pieter de Hooch had left Delft, where he had painted sunlit courtyards, for Amsterdam, the richest city in Europe, and his interiors grew grander to match. The Dutch Republic was near its commercial peak, and pictures like this hung in the homes of the same prosperous families they quietly show. Here a young couple shares a private morning. She turns to a mirror on the wall while he leans down to play with their dog. De Hooch built the room out of interlocking shapes, doorways and window frames and floor tiles, so the daylight seems to carry from one space into the next, falling last on the small dog at the man's hand.