Pieter de Hooch worked in Delft for a few years at the same time as Johannes Vermeer. Both artists were fascinated by how to render light and space. Here, De Hooch represented a space by means of two ‘throughviews’ (glimpses through doorways or windows): one into the cellar, the other into the entrance hall. He depicted the daylight with the lightest of paint, namely pure white. He thus created the perfect illusion of an interior space.