Interior with a Child Feeding a Parrot

Interior with a Child Feeding a Parrot (c. 1668-1672) is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is now in a private collection.

Interior with a Child Feeding a Parrot
ArtistPieter de Hooch
Year1668-1672
Dimensions79.5 cm × 66 cm (31.3 in × 26 in)
LocationPrivate collection

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1908, who wrote; "113. THE FAVOURITE PARROT. Sm. Suppl. 6 ; deG. 50.[1] In the left-hand corner of a room stands a table with an Eastern carpet and a white cloth. Upon it are cheese, fruit, plates, and other objects. A young man with a slouch hat sits behind the table, drinking a glass of wine. Behind him is a chimney-piece ; upon it stands some Chinese porcelain, and above it hangs a picture of a nude woman recumbent. In the right foreground there are bottles and glasses on a little table, and a silver dish on the floor. At a half-opened window to the left stands a young woman, in a red jacket trimmed with ermine, feeding a parrot, which looks out of its cage-door. The woman scratches the parrot's head with her left hand, and with her right soaks a crust in a wine-glass which a girl, standing more to the right behind the table, holds across to her. With her left hand this girl supports a little child who stands on a chair, watching the parrot being fed. A dog jumps up to the chair. By the window is a bird-cage ; behind the parrot there is another picture on the wall. The colouring is cool and clear in tone. Canvas, 31 inches by 27 inches. Mentioned by Waagen (Supplement, p. 99) ; by Ch. Blanc, Tresor de la Curiosite, ii. 433-4.; and by Havard.

Sale. Casimir Perier, Paris, April 18, 1838. In the collection of the Duc de Berri ; brought to England in 1840 by Hume. Now in the collection of the Earl of Northbrook, in London."[2]

The child is wearing a valhoed, or falling cap, and the same child with falling cap can be seen in Hooch's Teaching a Child to Walk, while the interior itself was used for another scene with the same child pulling impatiently on the skirt of a maidservant:

This painting was sold by Sotheby's in 2012 for $3,666,500.[3]

References
  1. Comparative table of catalog entries between John Smith's first Catalogue raisonné of Hooch and Hofstede de Groot's first list of Hooch paintings published in Oud Holland
  2. entry 113 for The Favorite Parrot in Hofstede de Groot, 1908
  3. Lot 56 record on Sotheby's website
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