The article examines the works of the Dutch artists of the 17th century Delft School of painting, which exemplify à synthesis of townscape painting and the daily-life genre. The topicality of this subject is due to the fact that it has not been developed sufficiently enough in historiography. The article’s scientific novelty lies in that it provides a detailed analysis of paintings based on the formal-stylistic and retrospective methods. Especial attention is given to the works of Carel Fabritius and Pieter de Hooch. The author comes to the conclusion that the paintings of the Delft artists are on the border of two genres - topographical townscape painting and the daily-life genre. In this context, they serve as the basis for the emergence of 18th century veduta painting.