Pieter de Hooch

Born in Rotterdam in 1629 to a bricklayer and a midwife, Pieter de Hooch emerged from a working-class background to become one of the Dutch Golden Age's most celebrated painters. Little is known of his early life, but he is believed to have studied under landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem in Haarlem. By 1650, de Hooch was working as a painter and servant for art collector Justus de la Grange, traveling with him to various Dutch cities and likely exchanging many of his early…