A Woman with a Baby in Her Lap, and a Small Child

While hardly unknown earlier, pictures affectionately describing the virtues of motherhood and the responsibilities of the housewife flourished remarkably on the Dutch art market during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. De Hooch could be considered the foremost representative of this development, especially in the late 1650s and early 1660s, when his finest domestic scenes were painted.

The painting is signed and dated lower left: P.D.H./A 1658.