Mauritshuis restores painted-out soldier to Pieter de Hooch courtyard painting

The Mauritshuis in The Hague has restored a soldier figure to Pieter de Hooch's 'A Man Smoking and a Woman Drinking in a Courtyard' (c. 1658–60), a fourth figure painted out before 1822. Restorers Sabrina Meloni and Abbie Vandivere used a reversible technique. The museum renamed the work 'Figures in a Courtyard'. Who removed the soldier remains unknown.