Mattheus Wijtmans

In a lush garden with marble statues, a young woman sits and sings from a songbook. Dressed in blue and brown silks and wearing costly pearls around her neck, ears, and hair, she is an emblem of elegance and refinement. Her fluttering veil and airy feathers give her appearance an effortless elegance.

The present unpublished panel is a significant addition to Wijtmans’s small oeuvre of about 15 paintings. Similar small and finely crafted panels showing a young man or woman at knee-length singing or playing a musical instrument are preserved in museums including the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden; Staatliches Museum, Schwerin; and the Louvre. In addition to these refined genre scenes, Wijtmans also painted portraits and still lifes. 

Mattheus Wijtmans was the son of Dirk Wijtmans and Ida van den Bosch. The family was Catholic and in 1640, when Mattheus was a toddler, left Den Bosch for Gorinchem. Mattheus trained there with Hendrick Verschuring (1627-1690). By 1664 he is recorded as a registered painter. The next year, Mattheus went to Utrecht to further his education under Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671), whose influence is palpable in the present work. In 1667 he registered as an independent master in the Utrecht guild of St. Luke.