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Two soldiers and a maid share a glass of beer in a picturesque courtyard; the tower of the Oude Kerk in the background locates the scene in Delft. The conviviality of the occasion is evident from the relaxed poses and expressions, their closeness to each other, their use of a single tall beer glass meant for passing around.
In the period from about 1657 until 1660, when De Hooch gradually refined his mature style in Delft, he produced several pairs of closely related pictures, in at least two instances straightforward replicas of a composition. There is an autograph replica of this picture in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
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