A Merry Company Making Music

1623 · Private collection

genre

Depictions of merry companies had begun at the very beginning of the seventeenth century with Esaias van de Velde, David Vinckboons and Dirck Hals' elder brother by ten years, Frans. These they set in elegant gardens or on outdoor terraces but it was Dirck Hals and Buytewech who were the first to move them indoors in the early 1620s. The present work joins the Musicians as one of Dirck Hals' two earliest known interiors, both dated 1623.

About the Artist

Dirck Hals

1591 – 1656

Dirck was the younger brother of Frans Hals who was probably also his teacher, but the painters who influenced Dirck were Esaias van de Velde and Willem Buytewech. Apart from a few portraits, he devoted himself exclusively to the painting of conversation pieces - the cheerful domestic life of prosperous burghers in their houses or gardens. He was not interested in the serious side of life; in his work he depicted people in conversation or while flirting, making music and dancing, eating and drinking. His interiors are hardly worked out, all the emphasis is put on fashionable dress and colourful representation. He succeeded in putting across people's high spirits through facial expression, costly dress, posture and loose grouping.

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