A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy

Pieter de Hooch

about 1660–1663

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A woman in a dark dress and blue skirt sits preparing bread and butter, while a young girl in a purple dress stands beside her holding a hat. The scene takes place indoors with a view through an open doorway to a sunlit street. A mother butters bread while her son stands beside her, his head bent in prayer over the food. He is about to depart for the school seen through the open front door and identified by the sign reading schole. A small triangular niche above the inner doorway holds several books and a candlestick, perhaps alluding to the enlightenment that education brings. A small top lying on the floor in front of the chamber doorway may refer to a Dutch proverb that states a child and a top will both fall idle unless continually "whipped." Education and proper attitudes toward child-rearing were important issues in Protestant countries during the se