(Amsterdam 1621–1674)
Music-making party, signed and dated at lower left G. V. Eeckhout fecit/ 1660, oil on canvas, 58 x 68 cm, framed

Provenance: Sale, Berlin, 28 Oct. 1930, lot 135; Sale Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, March 1972, no. 30; Sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 22 Nov. 1973, no. 50; Private Collection, Cologne.

Literature: G. Isarlo, “Rembrandt et son entourage”, in: La Renaissance, 19, 1936, no. 9, p. 49; E. Plietzsch, Holländische und Flämische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, fig. 331; R. Roy, Studien zu Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (doctoral thesis), Vienna 1972, pp. 146/47; F. W. Robinson, Dutch Life in the Golden Century, St. Petersburg/FloridaAtlanta 1975, p. 35, no. 21, p. 228, no. 117; W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. I, p. 748, no. 515. Prof. Sumowski assigns this painting to a group of eighteen society scenes executed between 1652 and 1662. He writes: “With his genre scenes, whose iconography is either allegorical or moralizing, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout achieved art historical significance… The themes serve as a pretext for the demonstration of artistic skills, so that the meanings of these works are concealed by form and colour. Due to their high degree of aesthetic perfection, they are equal to the best history paintings of the time… Brightly coloured compositions alternate with more subdued works also when it comes to genre painting, but the treatment of colour is always equally exquisite. Here taste meets the most sophisticated demands…”.

Provenance: Sale, Berlin, 28 Oct. 1930, lot 135; Sale Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, March 1972, no. 30; Sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 22 Nov. 1973, no. 50; Private Collection, Cologne. Literature: G. Isarlo, “Rembrandt et son entourage”, in: La Renaissance, 19,