A Mother Delousing her Child’s Hair, Known as ‘A Mother’s Duty’

Pieter de Hooch was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway — such as this one, in which a mother thoroughly inspects her child’s head for lice. She pursues her task in a sober Dutch interior with Delft blue tiles and a box bed. In the right foreground is a "kakstoel," or potty chair. Through the doorway is a glimpse of a sunny back room and a garden. De Hooch specialized in such "through-views." 

The early work of de Hooch was mostly scenes of soldiers and peasants in stables and taverns in the manner of Adriaen van Ostade, though he used these to develop great skill in light, color, and perspective rather than to explore an interest in the subject matter. After starting his family in the mid-1650s, he switched his focus to domestic scenes. These were possibly of his own family, though his works of well-to-do women breastfeeding and caring for children could also indicate that he had attended his mother on her rounds as a midwife. His work showed astute observation of the mundane details of everyday life while also functioning as well-ordered morality tales. These paintings often exhibited a sophisticated and delicate treatment of light similar to those of Vermeer, who lived in Delft at the same time as de Hooch.