(Antwerp 1613/14–1677)
Peasants drinking and making music,
oil on panel, 62.5 x 49.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Mrs. Marshall Field (1840–1896), Washington, D.C.;
Collection of Mrs. A. J. Beveridge (1881–1970), Indianapolis;
by whom gifted to the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, USA, 1938;
their sale, Christie’s, New York, 19 June 2020, lot 125 (as attributed to Willem van Herp I);
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Indianapolis, John Herron Art Museum, Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Etchings. Drawings. Delftware, 27 February – 11 April 1937, cat. no. 48 (as Justus van Nypoort)

Literature:
Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Etchings. Drawings. Delftware, exhibition catalogue, Indianapolis 1937, mentioned under no. 48;
The Art News, vol. XXXXVII, 12 November 1938, p. 18, illustrated (as Justus van den Nypoort);
W.D. Peat, Two Early Dutch Paintings, in: The Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, John Herron Art Institute, XXV, 1938, pp. 34–38, illustrated p. 37, (as Justus van den Nypoort);
W.D. Peat, M.L. Marley, J.R. Brown, L. Karn, A Catalogue of European Paintings. Indianapolis Museum of Art, collection catalogue, Indianapolis 1970, pp. 95–96, inv. no. 38.9, illustrated (as Willem van Herp ?)

We are grateful to Jahel Sanzsalazar, who published extensively on the artist, for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original. She regards the present composition the most accomplished among a number of versions of which one is currently in the Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham (inv. no. 1970P263), and another is conserved in the National Gallery, Slovenia (inv. no. O 1006). Sanzsalazar also points out the painting with the same subject by Adriaen Brouwer, dated circa 1633–35, conserved in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. 629), which most likely acted as an inspiration.

The present painting shows a violin player in a tavern-like surrounding who, having paused playing, gazes directly at the viewer while being approached by a toasting visitor from behind. The table in front of the musician shows a typical display for the time with a Gouda clay pipe and some tobacco, one of the trading products imported by the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. To smoke, a small piece of coal would carefully been taken out of the terracotta bowl next to the musician on the floor and held closely to the pipe. On the table we encounter furthermore a tin beer jug and a full glass of the same beverage. To give the scene some depth a maid in a blue dress and white apron is seen in the background on the left side of the composition.

The Antwerp-born Willem van Herp was a productive artist considering the number of paintings that are known, many of which were repeated by the artist himself and most likely created for the art market. Van Herp’s name is associated with that of the Antwerp painter and dealer Matthijs Musson, who had a big international circle and whose name is found in many publications on the art trade in the seventeenth century. The written correspondence of Musson states that many of Van Herp’s paintings were intended for the Spanish market, where many of his works are still found today. Most of his paintings have religious subjects and are often inspired by the works of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Paintings depicting scenes of everyday life are less known by the artist and seem mostly inspired by the works of David Teniers II. The artist trained at least one of his sons in the profession, to continue the family business.