Studio of Hendrick Ter Brugghen

With Pootjes, Ardenhout, The Netherlands;
With Christophe Janet, New York, 1984;
Linda and Gerald Guterman, Ltd., New York.

New York, Christophe Janet Ltd., The Intimate Vision as Seen Through a Selection of Seventeenth Century Dutch Paintings, 1984, no. 5 (as by Ter Brugghen).

L.J. Slatkes and W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1588-1629: Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2007, pp. 233-234, cat. nos. WTBVB14 and WTBVB15, reproduced, plates 109 and 110 (as Joint workshop of ter Brugghen and van Baburen). 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.This pair of paintings is quite presentable. The linings to both are competent, if not slightly heavy. The works are not particularly dirty, but the varnishes are slightly soft. In the violinist, the retouches in his tunic do not address some of the cracking and thinness, particularly in the lower left. In the lute player, there is also cracking in his tunic that could be refined with some retouching. A re-examination of the old restoration would certainly be beneficial and make noticeable improvement.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Ter Brugghen's half-length musicians were among his most popular works, as they contain the freedom of playful expression and strength of bold paint handling for which he is so greatly admired. The distinctive physiognomic type of these two models, their facial expressions, and the half-length, close-up compositions are characteristic of the type of musical subjects the artist and his studio executed during the first half of the 1620s. The same model, or at least a drawing of his features, was used for the lute player in a signed and dated work by Ter Brugghen in which the player gazes at the viewer with a very similar smiling expression.¹

As early as 1621 Ter Brugghen executed a pendant pair of single-figure Flute Players, in the Staatliche Museen, Kassel, which set the artistic standard for this new subject matter in Utrecht and elsewhere. One of these, the transverse flute player, is dressed in a colorful costume with striped sleeves and wearing a feathered beret set at a rakish angle to frame his head. In 1624, Ter Brugghen painted Two Singing Lute Players, now in the Musée National des Beaux-Arts d'Alger, Algiers, and the National Gallery, London, both of which wear costumes and berets similar to those found in the present works. Those two compositions exist in no less than two autograph repetitions, each a strong indication of the popularity of the theme and musical subjects in general. 

1. See literature, Slatkes and Franits 2007, cat. no. TW13 (as Ter Brugghen and Workshop).