Pieter de Hooch – Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting

What is a pauper doing here? The painting A Merry Company by Pieter de Hooch. The artist is the Dutch genre painter Pieter Hooch (1629-1684). His paintings may seem soulless, but there is a sense of tragedy behind all this restraint. Piety is usually absent from his works.

This painting features both men and women, as well as alcohol. Sunlight fills a large room with golden walls. The floor is decorated with patterned white-brown tiles. In the corner of the room, there is a table covered with patterned fabric, on which stands a salt shaker and a plate with a piece of bread. On the right side, a door is wide open. There is a rosewood chest of drawers with rounded legs. It holds Chinese cups, which cost a lot of money at that time. Above the chest of drawers hangs a painting depicting a nude young couple.

In front of the table, in the center of the painting, stands a woman dressed in an atlas light blue blouse, a yellow skirt, and a long white apron. She has a dark hat with a flower on her head. To her right stands a red-haired boy with a pitcher. He wants to fill a goblet that is being held by a girl sitting to his right. A smile can be seen on her face; she seems to have been amused by something after taking a sip from the goblet. Across from the girl, at the table and facing sideways, sits a man smoking a pipe. A large black hat rests on his lap. At his feet is a dog (which may signify sinfulness). In the doorway leading to another room stands another person. At the end of that room, one can see an old man with a gray beard and a cane – most likely he is the pauper. Seeing what is depicted in the painting, one wants to ask: What is happening here? Who are all these people, and how are they connected to each other? Most likely, the artist has depicted events that he once witnessed. And the beautiful setting of the room was created only so that the painting would appeal to the buyer.

The painting hanging above the chest of drawers evokes a faint sense of depravity. Could this be an expensive brothel? Is the young woman at the table one of its patrons? Then, is the woman in the blue blouse the mistress of the brothel (the thought is suggested by her hat, which was not typical for women at that time)? If so, then it can be understood why the man at the table seems to be waiting for further events, the girl is drinking wine, and there is practically nothing on the table except a piece of bread. As for the man and the old man in another room, here reality turns into didacticism, telling us that poverty will eventually come with old age. In conclusion: if you lead a dissolute life, you will lose everything you have and dissolve into your whims.