After The Brunswick Monogrammist, 'Entertainers in a Brothel', about 1555
About the work
Overview
This is the interior of a brothel. On the left, three men drink with the women who work there, whose skirts are hoisted up to show their legs. On the right, we see a group of entertainers: a boy does a headstand on a stool; a small dog has perhaps already jumped through the hoop on the floor. An unkempt man with bagpipes has been accompanying the tricks. In the background, a man, flagon raised, embraces a woman, while in the top left corner a couple are closing the door of a bedroom.
Pictures of inns and brothels were increasingly in demand in the sixteenth century, and at least five brothel scenes are attributed to the Brunswick Monogrammist. He did two versions of this composition, with different details in the background. Our painting is an enlarged version of a panel in the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; a variant can be seen in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. The original compositions were probably invented by the Brunswick Monogrammist and repeated with small variations by his followers.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Entertainers in a Brothel
- Artist
- After The Brunswick Monogrammist
- Artist dates
- active about 1535 - 1555
- Date made
- about 1555
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 45.7 × 60.9 cm
- Inscription summary
- Inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Thomas Esmond Lowinsky in memory of Lt. T.M.F.E. Lowinsky, 1945
- Inventory number
- NG5577
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600’, London 2014; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1955Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1955
-
1955The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
-
1987Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Netherlandish School, 3rd edn, London 1987
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2014
L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600, 2 vols, London 2014
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
Related works
