Boy Singing

Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch, 1588–1629)

1627

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions85.2 x 73.6cm (33 9/16 x 29in.)
Framed: 104.8 x 93.3 cm (41 1/4 x 36 3/4 in.)

Credit LineErnest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund

Accession number58.975

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

Ter Brugghen was the first of a number of artists from Utrecht who traveled to Rome and fell under the sway of the work of the Italian painter Caravaggio. Ter Brugghen used ordinary artists’ models, but dressed them in colorful costumes similar to those worn by street entertainers. Like this one, many of his pictures feature a single figure against a blank background.

InscriptionsCenter right: HTBrugghen fecit 16 27 (HTB joined)ProvenanceOctober 18, 1819, possibly Gottfried Winkler sale, Leipzig, lot 7. December 16, 1885, possibly D. M. Alewijn sale, Amsterdam, lot 24 [see note 1]. 1957, Oliver Francis Lambart (b. 1913 - d. 1986), 2nd Bt., Beau Parc, County Meath, Ireland [see note 2]. 1958, Leggatt Brothers, London; 1958, sold by Leggatt to M. Knoedler and Co., London and New York (stock no. A6965) [see note 3]; 1958, sold by Knoedler to the MFA for $27,000.00. (Accession Date: October 9, 1958)

NOTES:
[1] Leonard J. Slatkes and Wayne Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen: Catalogue Raisonné (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007), cat. A85, pp. 207-208, have tentatively identified this painting with a composition by Gerrit van Honthorst, representing a young man with a feathered hat singing from a notebook, which appeared in the Winkler sale in 1819 (measuring about 81 x 67.5 cm) and the Alewijn sale in 1885 (measuring 80 x 62 cm). The MFA painting measures 85.2 x 73.6 cm. [2] When Lambart lent the painting to the exhibition "Paintings from Irish Collections," (Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1957, cat. no. 95), it was attributed to Gerrit van Honthorst. [3] According to information provided by the Getty Provenance Index, Knoedler owned the painting jointly with Abdy.