Voorhuis (painting)

A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer  [d] (1665) by Jacob Ochtervelt (National Gallery of Art, London)
Het Binnenhuis, also known as Young Woman with a Letter and a Messenger in an Interior, by Pieter de Hooch (1670)

Voorhuis painting (English: entrance hall painting) was a Dutch painting genre of the 17th century, typically portraying a view from inside a wealthy house with affluent residents interacting with patrons on the outside through the front doorway. Voorhuis describes a front room,[1] vestibule,[2] or foyer in Dutch.

The style may have developed as a result of the "good light" which streamed through the front windows of a house, while the side walls of Dutch townhouses were often windowless.[3]

Jacob Ochtervelt was a key artist of the movement. Many of Ochtervelt's voorhuis pictures illustrated the trade between residents and local peddlers and food vendors.[4] Het Binnenhuis by Pieter de Hooch is considered an excellent example of the voorhuis style.[5]

References

  1. ^ Liedtke, Walter A.; Plomp, Michiel; Rüger, Axel; N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York; Britain), National Gallery (Great (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-973-4.
  2. ^ Franits, Wayne E. (2004-01-01). Dutch Seventeenth-century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10237-6.
  3. ^ Fleischer, Roland E.; Munshower, Susan Scott (1988-01-01). The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-century Dutch Painting. Penn State Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-915773-02-2.
  4. ^ Jacobs, Lynn F. (2017-09-25). Thresholds and Boundaries: Liminality in Netherlandish Art (1385-1530). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-60873-2.
  5. ^ Funk, Elisabeth Paling; Shattuck, Martha Dickinson (2011-09-07). A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Selected Rensselaerwijck Papers, Volume 2. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-3597-8.


Stub icon

This art movement–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This Netherlands-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.