Interior with Women beside a Linen Cupboard, Pieter de Hooch, 1663
The sun lights up the canal houses outside, while in the darker interior a girl plays ‘kolf,’ a kind of hockey. Two women stack freshly pressed linen in a closet. The linen cupboard had an important place in the home. The lady of the house carried its key with her and ‘handed out the sheets’: she called the shots and was in charge of the household.