Lot 146: Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-1684 Amsterdam)

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-1684 Amsterdam)
An elegant company making music in an interior
indistinctly signed and dated '... HOOCH 1684' (upper right)
oil on canvas
21 3/8 x 25 1/8 in. (54.3 x 63.8 cm.)

(Possibly) British Institution, London, 1847, no. 123 (lent by Phipps).

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, II, London, 1854, p. 227, no. 2.
C. Hofstede de Groot and W. Valentiner, 'Pieter de Hooch', in Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, I, Esslingen-Paris, 1907, p. 519, no. 160.
P.C. Sutton, Pieter de Hooch, Oxford, 1980, pp. 119-20, no. 163, fig. 166, the signature transcribed from a 1945 photograph 'P./D(E?) HOOGE AO 1684'.

The Hon. General Phipps, and by descent to his nephew,
The Hon. Edmund Phipps, London; Christie's, London, 25 June 1859, lot 57 (19 gns. to Robinson).
Danby & Seymour, Grosvenor Square; Christie's, London, 6 July 1861, lot 82 (unsold).
Danby & Seymour, Grosvenor Square; Christie's, London, 18 January 1868, lot 98 (7 gns. to Seymour).
Miss J.M. Seymour, East Knoyle House, East Knoyle, Salisbury, Wiltshire; Her Sale, Christie's, London, 19 January 1945, lot 50 (400 gns. to Leger).
with Leger Gallery, London, from whom purchased by the husband of the present owner, c. 1946.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
It seems likely that the Hon. General Phipps who owned this picture was General Edmund Phipps (1760-1837), son of Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave and brother of General Henry Phipps, 1st Earl Mulgrave (1755-1832), the diplomatist and politician, and that his collection of pictures was bequeathed to his nephew and namesake the Hon. Edmund Phipps (1808-1838), the lawyer and author, third son of the Earl.