Two Soldiers and a Serving Woman with a Trumpeter
Pieter de Hooch·1650
Historical Context
Pieter de Hooch's Two Soldiers and a Serving Woman with a Trumpeter from around 1650, in the Kunsthaus Zürich, belongs to his early period of guardroom scenes, painted before his transition to the domestic interiors for which he is celebrated. These military genre scenes, influenced by the Rotterdam painter Ludolf de Jongh, show de Hooch developing the spatial interests and warm palette that would characterize his later work. The guardroom genre was popular among Dutch painters who had witnessed the aftermath of the Eighty Years' War.
Technical Analysis
The interior scene is rendered with warm, brownish tones characteristic of de Hooch's early manner. The spatial arrangement of figures within the guardroom already shows his developing interest in architectural space and the play of light through interior openings.
