Charles Cornelisz de Hooch was long thought to be the father of painter Pieter de Hooch, but recent research has proved that incorrect, and revealed additional details about his life (see Ir. J. Gestman Geradts, ‘De verrassende achtergrond van Charles en David de Hooch’, Oud Holland, CXXX, 2017, pp.111-122). His father, Cornelis de Hooghe, was said to be an illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V. Following Cornelis’s beheading in 1583 for a failed uprising in favour of Philip II of Spain, Charles, and his artist brother David de Hooch, were placed under the guardianship of the court.

Charles’s oeuvre is largely made up of Dutch Italianate landscapes, frequently including Roman ruins in capriccio settings. It is possible that, despite the court's close supervision of his life, the artist visited Italy between 1624 and 1627, and it has even been suggested that he stayed with the Farnese family, who would have been relations via his illegitimate grandfather (Gestman Geradts, op. cit.). After a brief stay in Haarlem following his return to Italy, the artist settled in Utrecht around 1628, where he became a member of the painter’s guild in 1633.