Jacob Ochtervelt, 'Two Women and a Man making Music', probably 1675-80
About the work
Overview
Jacob Ochtervelt has focused our gaze on a brilliantly dressed woman standing at a virginal. Light falls onto her bare left shoulder and on the huge double dome of red satin that forms the back of the skirt and its train. She seems cut off from an intimate exchange between a female singer and a violinist taking place at the left of the scene.
Two dogs on opposite sides of the room are engaged in a game that sets the flirtatious tone for the painting. Interestingly, the dog on the right was completely painted out in the early 1920s, possibly because it was felt that the music was being ‘drowned by yapping dogs’, as the text in an auction catalogue put it. The map on the background wall is taken from an atlas-sized map of North and South America published in Amsterdam in 1661.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Woman playing a Virginal, Another singing and a Man playing a Violin
- Artist
- Jacob Ochtervelt
- Artist dates
- 1634 - 1682
- Date made
- probably 1675-80
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 84.5 × 75 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1924
- Inventory number
- NG3864
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2013Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and LeisureThe National Gallery (London)26 June 2013 - 8 September 2013
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2022Keyboard InstrumentsThe Snijders & Rockox Huis26 March 2022 - 26 June 2022
Bibliography
-
1924C, Holmes, 'Ochtervelt and "Melozzo" at Trafalgar Square', The Burlington Magazine, XLIV/253, 1924, pp. 192-7
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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