Pieter de Hooch, 'A Musical Party in a Courtyard', 1677

A small group of people meet to make music and enjoy each other’s company. We look over the back of a chair to see a young woman playing the violin in way unfamiliar to us, with the instrument resting on the table upright, similar to how a cello is played. We see the detail of her stiff, braided bodice, the gathers in her delicate apron and the glint of a pearl earring as she looks down at her instrument with great concentration.

A man smiles at the young woman sitting at her ease on the right. Pieter de Hooch has picked out her jewels, but without ostentation: a pearl necklace, long earrings and the ornament in her hair. The lace round the wide neck of her dress gleams a little and the red bows on her sleeve echo the red skirts swathed over her knees. The man, his broad brimmed hat jauntily tilted, toys with some food, while she holds a wineglass in her lap, stirring the wine with a slender metal stick.

The artist has given hardly any architectural detail to the courtyard in which they sit, which is unusual for him. We know by the dress of the occupants and the expensive Turkish carpet on the table that this is a sophisticated establishment, but we have little idea of their surroundings and they don't share the sunshine outside. Instead, de Hooch has given prominence to the houses seen across the canal, which are similar to those on the canals of Amsterdam. The left-hand one bears a tablet with the date 1620 and is in the style of Hendrick de Keyser, a prominent and innovatory Dutch architect of the time. Between us and these houses is a pavement, a balustrade and a canal.

After a move to Amsterdam, de Hooch began to paint sophisticated domestic settings and elegant figures in contrast to the tranquil middle-class interiors he had painted when he lived in Delft, like The Courtyard of a House in Delft. As in that picture, however, he has placed an enigmatic figure in the arch of an entrance. Here, it’s a man in silhouette; in The Courtyard of a House in Delft, it’s a woman, and she is a little more clearly defined. Although they are there to help us understand the depth of the view beyond, both are turned away from us. De Hooch gives them an air of mystery and leaves us wondering why they are there and where, if anywhere, they are going.