Joseph van Aken

Painted by the Antwerp born Joseph van Aken, this musical gathering is typical of the artist's independent work produced during the 1720s. It is the first time that this work has been sold in over 150 years.

Van Aken arrived in London around 1720, where he began producing multi-figured scenes in interiors influenced by northern genre painting. This form of genre scene, which was also explored heavily in the paintings of Marcellus Laroon the Younger (1679–1772), was eventually perfected by none other than William Hogarth (1697–1764). Van Aken was an associate of Hogarth and accompanied him on a visit to France in 1748.

In this canvas the artist presents a musical gathering in a grand neo-classical setting attended by dancers, servants and onlookers enjoying the sensual delights on offer. Van Aken's London was a city bursting with music and was at this time home to George Frideric Handel and a deluge of visiting Italian musicians and performers. Here the artist has taken great delight in depicting the various musical instruments assembled. In the centre, a lady in yellow plays a struck dulcimer, accompanied by a hautboy (oboe) player, a lutenist and a cellist for bass accompaniment. Also depicted is an idle baroque guitar, with accompanying case, and a violin resting on the floor. To the left a seated violin player observes a couple dancing underneath a balcony whilst being admired by an audience from above. This mixture of musical performance, dance and the pursuit of pleasure in luxurious surroundings is a hallmark of the fête galante subject pursued by many artists of the Rococo period.

A surviving drawing by Van Aken in the British Museum suggests that the artist would use quickly drawn studies of figures which he would then place into larger paintings.¹ Some details found in this painting, with slight variations, are encountered in other works by the artist; these include the gallant cellist and oboe player, which are very similar to another pair encountered in a painting in the Towner, Eastborne.² The statue on a plinth in the background also reappears in an interior in the collection of Tate Britain.³

By the 1730s Van Aken eventually abandoned this genre altogether and pursued the lucrative career of a drapery painter for portraits. His talent for producing brilliant renderings of all manners of textiles was sought by artists such as Joseph Highmore, Thomas Hudson, Allan Ramsay, George Knapton and others.

¹ https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1865-1014-373

² https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-music-party-73044/view_as/grid/search/makers:joseph-van-aken-c16991749/page/1

³ https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/an-english-family-at-tea-202592/view_as/grid/search/makers:joseph-van-aken-c16991749/page/1