Northern Caravaggist School

circa 1630

Two musicians

Footnotes

Provenance
Giscaro Collection, Toulouse, 1957 (according to literature)
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 October 1996, lot 158, where purchased by the present owners

Literature
R. Mesuret 'L'oeuvre peint de Nicolas Tournier', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, December 1957, pp. 338-340, no. 35, fig. 8 (as Nicholas Tournier)
B. Nicholson, Caravaggism in Europe, Oxford, 1979, vol. I, p. 165, under cat. no. 1010, version 2 (as Rombouts)
G. Papi, Gherardo delle Notti: Gerrit Honthorst in Italia, Crema, 1999, p. 152, under no. 24


The present painting has attracted a number of alternative attributions to a variety of accomplished Caravaggist artists over the years. Initially attributed to Nicholas Tournier, it is a version of the Musical Pair in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung, Munich, which is of similar dimensions and of similar quality. In his 1979 work (op. cit.) Benedict Nicolson had subsequently attributed both versions to Theodoor Rombouts; while in 1999 Gianni Papi suggested a possible attribution to Gerrit Honthorst. There is a stipple engraving of a similar composition with the caption: gemalt v Gerhardt Honthorst geaetzt v F. Frick Haeusliche Andacht Zu finden bei F. Frick in Berlin Friedrich Strasse Nr. 248 , although in 1962, both Benedict Nicolson and Leonard J. Slatkes had attributed the lost original painting that this stipple engraving reproduces to Dirck van Baburen. While the consensus amongst those latest authorities who were involved in this year's exhibition, Theodoor Rombouts, Virtuoso of Flemish Caravaggism in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent has been to question Nicholson's attribution, they are nonetheless agreed that the painting is by a Northern Caravaggist artist dating to circa 1630 and that the facial features of the male lute player and the headgear of the female lute player, for example, compare favourably to those in the Musical Pair in Munich.

We are grateful to Professor Wayne Franits for his assistance in cataloguing this work.