'The Empty Jug': Tavern Scene, with Serving-wench, Gentleman with Pipe and Dog and Card Players
attributed to Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629 – Amsterdam 1684)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1670 - 1679
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
546 x 648 mm (21 1/2 x 25 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872130
Caption
A typical 17th-century Dutch laid-back tavern scene with men playing cards, a dog lying by a fire, a pipe being filled, and a maid (perhaps embued with erotic symbolism) showing the well-dressed cavalier an empty jug. It was regarded as being by the artist de Hooch when in the collection of the dealer, Peter Norton in about 1842 and in the early 20th century it was suggested that it was a pair with the Players at Tric-trac, now in the National Gallery of Ireland, which has since been rejected. The costume of the cavalier gives it a date of around the 1670s which could suggest it could be by the Rotterdam painter Ludolf de Jongh (1616-79), by whom de Hooch, himself son of a Rotterdam bricklayer, was once inspired, in his early works.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, 'The Empty Jug': Tavern Scene with Serving-wench, Gentleman with Pipe and Dog and Card Players, attributed to Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629 – Amsterdam 1684), 1670s. A cavalier, filling his pipe, seated on a bench in front of a table, wearing a green coat and wide brimmed feathered hat, at the left a maid in white cap and white apron over a yellow dress, shows him an empty jug; at the right of the table two men playing cards; a dog in the front and a fire burning at the right.
Provenance
John Smith (1781-1855); Peter Norton (dealer active 1814-69) by 1842; at Saltram by 1924; accepted by the Treasury in part payment of death-duties from the executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951) and transferred to the Trust in 1957.
Credit line
Saltram, The Morley Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
attributed to Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629 – Amsterdam 1684), artist possibly Ludolf de Jongh (Overschie 1616 - Hillegersberg 1679), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Samuel van Hoogstraten (Dordrecht 1627 – Dordrecht 1678), artist
References
Smith 1842 John Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1842, pp. 564-65, no.5; Havard 1880 H. Havard, L'art et les artistes hollandais, vol.III, 1880, p.127, no.1 Hofstede de Groot 1907-28 Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII Jahrhunderts,1907-28, p..., No.279 Sutton 1980 Peter C. Sutton, Peter de Hooch, Oxford 1980, cat.126, pp. 111-112 and pl.129. Gore 1966: F. St John Gore, 'A Patron of Portrait and Landscape - the Picture Collection at Saltram House, Devon', Country Life, 2 June 1966, p.1388, p.1388