Two Women Beside a Linen Chest, with a Child

Pieter de Hooch's Two Women Beside a Linen Chest, with a Child of 1663 depicts a household scene: two well dressed women are putting the linen away; their skirts are gathered up to keep them clean. In the background a small boy is playing kolf, once a very popular sport in the Netherlands in which a ball is struck with a stick. The kolf stick in the child's hand indicates – despite the ambiguous clothing – that the child is male.

Pieter de Hooch (1629–1683), Two Women Beside a Linen Chest, with a Child, oil on canvas, 70 cm x 75.5 cm, 1663; source: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.