(Utrecht 1603–1671)
Musical company,
inscribed and dated at lower left: GHonthorst 1626,
oil on canvas, 109 x 97 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private collection, Vienna

We are grateful to Paul Huys Janssen, who examined the present painting in the original in December 2014, for confirming it to be a work by Bijlert and his workshop. A second version of this composition with an attribution to Jan van Bijlert was sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 10 July 2002 as lot 32.

Joachim von Sandrart reports that Jan van Bijlert entered the workshop of Abraham Bloemaert after the death of his father, a glass painter and his first teacher, in 1616. Having completed his apprenticeship, he undertook an extensive study tour, which led him to Rome via France. In Rome he was first mentioned in 1621 as Giovanni Bilardo. Around 1623 he became a member of the Roman Schildersbent (Bentvueghels). He probably returned to Utrecht towards the end of 1624 and was back for certain by May 1625. In 1626 he was among the founders of the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht, and functioned repeatedly as their chairman from 1632 on. As Houbraken mentions, Bijlert was also much in demand as a teacher. By the time Biljert returned to his native town, Hendrick ter Bruggen, Dirck van Baburen, and Gerrit van Honthorst had already established themselves there as exponents of Northern Caravaggism. Their impact on Biljert is also betrayed in the present painting. It is not without reason that it wrongly bears Honthorst’s signature. The painting dates from a period when, under Honthorst’s leadership, the style of the Caravaggisti in Utrecht developed from a strict naturalism in the direction of an academic classicism.

Comparable paintings by Bijlert are A Party Sharing a Meal of Waffles and Pancakes from around 1630 (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. no. 1976/187; cf. P. Huys Janssen, Jan van Bijlert, Amsterdam, 1998, p. 152, no. 140, fig. 85) and A Lute Player, dating from 1625/30 (private collection; cf. P. Huys Janssen, op. cit., p. 145, no. 124, fig. 60). These comparisons suggest that our Music-Making Party was painted in the early 1630s.

Genre scenes almost always set at night-time and by candlelight and featuring soldiers, card players, or violinists rendered as half-length figures or merry-making parties are typical of such Utrecht Caravaggisti as Bijlert. The figures, depicted in lively, brilliant colours, are skilfully and effectively grouped around a light source, so that some of them are brightly lit while others appear in shadow. The play of light and shade thus achieved is highly characteristic of the works by these Utrecht-based painters.