Images(3)

A Merry Group behind a Balustrade

Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1592–1656)

about 1623-24

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions99.7 x 138.4 cm (39 1/4 x 54 1/2 in.)
Framed: 121.3 x 160.7 x 10.2 cm (47 3/4 x 63 1/4 x 4 in.)

Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art

Accession number2019.2091

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

A man with a violin and a woman with a lute make music, while behind them, a third figure raises a glass and sings along. Their closeness to the ledge and the dramatic lighting help create a sense of immediacy. The young woman’s cleavage, fanciful dress, and feathered turban suggest she is a prostitute, employing extravagant clothing to woo clients. Honthorst based the theme of the painting, the theatrical headgear, and the strongly-lit, half-length figures on works by Caravaggio, who had many followers in the Netherlands.

InscriptionsGH (in ligature) onthorst. fecProvenancePossibly David van Mollem (b. 1670 - d. 1746), Amsterdam [see note 1]; by descent to his grandson, Antony Sydervelt (b. 1731 – d. 1765), Amsterdam; April 23, 1766, posthumous Sydervelt sale, Hendrik de Winter, Amsterdam, lot 57, to Fouquet [see note 2]. 1775, Stanisław II August Poniatowski, King of Poland (b. 1732 - d. 1798), Warsaw [see note 3]; 1798, by inheritance to his nephew Prince Józef Poniatowski (b. 1763 – d. 1813), Warsaw; June 20, 1807, sold by Prince Józef Poniatowski to Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł (b. 1778 – d. 1850), Warsaw and Vilnius, Lithuania [see note 4]; by descent to his grandson Zygmunt (Sigismund) Radziwiłł (b. 1822 – d. 1892), Warsaw and Paris; May 23, 1865, Radziwiłł sale, Charles Pillet, Paris, lot 52, unsold or bought back; March 22-23, 1866, Radziwiłł sale, Charles Pillet, Paris, lot 52, to Salomon [see note 5]. Alexandre Dumont (d. about 1877), Cambrai, France; September 30, 1878, posthumous Dumont sale, E. Durand, Cambrai, lot 29 to M. de Malherbe (d. about 1883), Valenciennes [see note 6]; October 17, 1883, posthumous Malherbe sale, Pierre Carpentier, Valenciennes, lot 26, probably to Paul Le Gavrian (b. 1832 – d. 1901) and Pauline Amélie Robillon Le Gavrian (b. 1838 - d. 1922), Lille [see note 7]; until about 1985, by descent within the family; about 1985, acquired from the Le Gavrian family by an anonymous private collector [see note 8]; January 30, 2014, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 34, sold to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA [see note 9]; 2019, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 2019)

NOTES:
[1] This painting is nearly identical to another painting attributed to Gerrit van Honthorst at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (Les chanteurs, inv. no. H 657), where it has been since 1875. Due to their closely-related compositions, it has not been possible to determine with certainty which of the two paintings the pre-1875 provenance information given here pertains to. David van Mollem was a wealthy silk merchant who had amassed a large art collection by the time of his death. According to Lucas Derks, Michiel Plomp, and Joop Speth in De dood van Seneca door Gerard van Honthorst? (Utrecht, 1982), pp. 6, 8, a posthumous inventory of van Mollem’s collection lists two works by Gerard van Honthorst, one of them titled Een Vrolijk Geselschap. Derk, Plomp, and Speth argue this is the same painting listed as lot 57 in his grandson Anthony Sydervelt’s posthumous art sale.

[2] Buyer information is according to a handwritten annotation in the auction catalogue. “Fouquet” may refer to the Dutch art dealer Pierre/Pieter Fouquet (active in 1750s) or his son Pierre/ Pieter Fouquet Jr. (b. 1729 – d. 1800).

[3] See Tadeusz Mańkowski in Galerja Stanisława Augusta, (Lviv, 1932), p. 212. The painting is listed as no. 79 in a 1795 inventory of Stanisław II August, Catalogue des tableaux Appartenant a Sa Majeste le Roi de Pologne 1795.

[4] According to two annotated copies of Stanisław II August’s 1795 inventory, referenced in Mańkowski, 1932 (see above, note 3), p. 212, Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł purchased the painting on June 20, 1807. The painting is listed as no. 187 in an 1835 inventory of Radziwiłł’s art collection.

[5] Buyer information is according to Frederik J. Duparc in Dutch and Flemish Masterworks: From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Boston, 2020), p. 60.

[6] An incomplete, handwritten note on the back of the painting (dated March 1927) written by their son, Paul Louis Emile Le Gavrian (b. 1872 - d. 1945), states that the painting was at his parents’ house in Lille until 1925, when he then moved it to his home in Versailles. An excerpt from the 1883 posthumous de Malherbe sale is also included in Le Gavrian’s note at the top.

[7] Duparc 2020 (see above, note 5), p. 60.

[8] Duparc 2020 (see above, note 5), p. 60.