Ludolf de Jongh

(Overschie 1616-1676 Hillegersberg)

A musical party

Footnotes

Provenance
Collection of Baron Pallandt, Overijsel, The Netherlands
Collection of Arthur C. Tate, New York
With Schaeffer Galleries, New York, 1968 (as Jacob van Loo)
Collection of John R. Blewer, Owensboro, Kentucky, USA and thence by descent to the present owner

Literature
R.E. Fleischer and S. Reiss, 'Attributions to Ludolf de Jongh: some old, some new', in The Burlington Magazine, October 1993, vol. 135, no. 1087, pp. 669-671, ill. fig.8


For many years considered to be by Jacob van Loo (Sluis 1614-1670 Paris), the present lot was recognised as a work by his near contemporary Ludolf de Jongh (Overshie 1616-1674 Hilegersberg) by Roland E. Fleischer and Stephen Reiss in their article 'Attributions to Ludolf de Jongh: some old some new' in the Burlington Magazine in October 1993 (see Literature).

The key to their attribution is based on two drawings: one in the Albertina, Vienna, of a standing figure playing the violin (inv. no. 8743, see fig. 1) and the other in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, of figure studies. The former is clearly a study for the central figure in the present Musical Party, the colourfully clad gentleman playing the violin, with the only difference being that the artist has adapted some of his clothing to suit the interior setting of the present painting. The Lille drawing shows a study of a young man holding a glass of wine with a further study, in the upper corner of the sheet, of a young woman with her head upturned. This latter figure is related to the seated young woman playing the lute, lower left, who is looking upwards towards the violin player.

In their article suggesting some new attributions to the painter, Fleischer and Reiss propose a date of around 1652 for the present Musical Party. By this point in his career, de Jongh was well established as a painter in the city of Rotterdam and was known for his guardroom interiors, in the vein of his master, the Delft painter Anthonie Palamedesz. (Delft 1601-1673 Amsterdam). Fleischer and Reiss believe A Musical Party to be approximately contemporary with his Prodigal Son, now known only through a drawing by Jan Verkolje (Amsterdam 1650-1693 Delft) and in the Rijksprentenkabinet.

As his native city of Rotterdam was not a major centre of art patronage, de Jongh may have been less obliged to specialise in order to meet competition and was able to turn his hand to various subjects and genres. Given his varied output, many works by de Jongh have previously been attributed to his other, more famous contemporaries, such as Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-1684 Amsterdam), Gerard Terborch (Zwolle 1617-1681 Deventer) or Gabriel Metsu, (Leiden 1629-1667 Amsterdam), amongst others. Indeed, the two above mentioned drawings were both initially thought to be the work of de Jongh's master, Anthonie Palamedesz. His depictions of interiors can range, for example, from the enclosed, dark, windowless rooms of soldiers, in the style of Palamedesz, to the light-filled, elegant interiors in the vein of the Delft painters of the 1660s. The present Musical Party tends towards the latter with its clearly defined interior space flooded with daylight from the open windows to the left, and filled with elegant, colourful figures.