Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, 'The Wandering Musicians', 1745
About the work
Overview
A pair of good-humoured and energetic musicians are visiting an inn – the sign hanging outside shows a jug and a pair of compasses. One plays a bagpipe, the other a fiddle. The picture is an example of an eighteenth-century German painter imitating a seventeenth-century Dutch artist; in this case, the composition is based on a work by Adriaen van Ostade, a well-known painter of everyday scenes, and it is done in his style. Dietrich most probably knew van Ostade’s version from an engraving.
Dietrich has signed the work at the bottom right-hand corner and dated it 1745 (he later made an etching of the composition). His friend, the engraver Jean-George Wille, owned the painting and it became well known through a print that he made from it. Wille asked Dietrich for a pendant (a painting to pair it with) in 1761, and the artist gave him a picture of a woman selling pancakes (now lost). Wille also engraved this second work.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Wandering Musicians
- Artist dates
- 1712 - 1774
- Date made
- 1745
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 43.3 × 33 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1846
- Inventory number
- NG205
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Susan Foister, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2014Strange Beauty: Masters of the German RenaissanceThe National Gallery (London)19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014
Bibliography
-
1959Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Schools, London 1959
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2024S. Foister, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800, 2 vols, London 2024
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.