Artwork Page for A Musical Company

Details / Information for A Musical Company

A Musical Company

c. 1668

Jacob Ochtervelt

(Dutch, 1634–1682)
Culture
Netherlands
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 73 x 64.5 x 5.5 cm (28 3/4 x 25 3/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 58.5 x 48.9 cm (23 1/16 x 19 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1991.23
Public Domain
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Location
215 French, German, and Dutch
Print

Description

Despite the calm demeanor and elegant disposition of the figures, this interior scene probably represents the interior of a brothel, signaled by the row of female portraits in the background, rarely found in other paintings of this period. The depiction of music provides another clue to the subject. The recorder and violin, played without scores, were perceived as cruder instrumentation and associated with prostitution, versus the elegant and complicated musicmaking seen in the work by Pieter de Hooch in the museum's collection.
A vertically oriented oil painting depicts six people in a dark room, all with light skin tones. In the foreground, a woman in a red dress sits to our right playing a violin. Centered, a man plays a recorder beside another figure. To our left, a man stands in profile wearing black and white clothing. In the background, two people stand near a doorway below several paintings hanging on the back wall.

A Musical Company

c. 1668

Jacob Ochtervelt

(Dutch, 1634–1682)
Netherlands

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