This essay explores Samuel van Hoogstraten's reasons for designing his intriguing perspective box in the National Gallery in London [Fig. 45]. Susan Koslow, one of the scholars who dealt in depth with the few extant boxes, presumed that there was a romantic love story behind the London work. More recently, Celeste Brusati did not deny that there was an erotic element to the depictions on the outside of the box, but she was inclined to regard the work as an artful self-portrait and a proud self-reflexive demonstration of the artist's accomplishments in the art of perspective. In what follows, I shall put forward another, more ‘domestic’ suggestion with regard to what may have moved Samuel van Hoogstraten in creating his perspective box.

In his book De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen of 1718-1721, Arnold Houbraken gave a rare insight in the pedagogical gifts of Samuel van Hoogstraten, to whom he was once apprenticed. The following remarkable passage suggests that Van Hoogstraten's works must always have been purposeful and never devoid of meaning:

If we contemplate Van Hoogstraten's perspective box in the National Gallery in London with this last sentence in mind, we may wonder what the artist intended [Figs. 46-48]. The depicted rooms are nearly empty of living beings except a lonely little dog waiting obediently, and, ‘in the background’, a sleeping woman in a bed, another woman reading a book beside a window that opens on the street; a little boy is peeking inside.