Woman with a Water Pitcher, and a Man by a Bed by HOOCH, Pieter de

HOOCH, Pieter de

(b. 1629, Rotterdam, d. 1684, Amsterdam)

Woman with a Water Pitcher, and a Man by a Bed

1667-70
Oil on canvas, 62 x 52 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This painting is one of De Hooch's variations on an amorous theme. The motif of pulling on a stocking and that of a dog nosing about were both recognized in De Hooch's day as sexual innuendos when the context supported such readings.

The painting is a fragment of a broader canvas, it has lost about 17 cm on the right.