The Hospital Orderly

Although Pieter de Hooch had no recorded pupils he influenced and was often imitated by other painters in Delft and Amsterdam, and since his own original works decline in his later period, his followers come at times pretty close to him, and now and then it is difficult to distinguish hands. Those whose works have been confused with his include Jacobus Vrel, but now the artistic personalities and special charms of these minor artists are more or less clear. It can be seen that other painters who made views of interiors and street scenes can be associated with the school of Delft by borrowing motifs and making variations on the compositional devices and pictorial refinements of its masters.