COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000205
image_record_id
aahi0000205
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Merry Company
Image Title:
detail, the two figures
Work Dates (display):
1630
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Judith Leyster (Dutch, 1581-1660)
Work Creator gender:
female
work_creator_or_agent_gender
female
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
Dutch painter. She painted genre scenes, portraits and still-lifes, and she may also have made small etchings; no drawings by her are known. She specialized in small intimate genre scenes, usually with women seated by candlelight, and single half-length figures set against a neutral background (see fig.). She was influenced by both the Utrecht caravaggisti and Frans Hals. Leyster may have worked in Hals's shop (c. 16268 and c. 162933), where she copied and adapted several of his paintings, although the nature of her work in his shop has been disputed. These possible works include The Jester (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), a copy after Hals's Lute Player (Paris, Louvre), and the Rommel-pot Player (Chicago, IL, A. Inst.), after Hals's lost work. However, it is also possible that her early career began in the shop of the Haarlem portrait painter Frans Pietersz. de Grebber, with whom she is mentioned in Samuel Ampzing's poem about Haarlem of 1627/8. This would also explain the somewhat passé nature of her few known later portraits, for example Portrait of a Woman (1635; Haarlem, Frans Halsmus.), the shallow space of which seems to push the woman forward on to the picture plane. In 1628 Leyster's family moved to Vreeland, near Utrecht, where, it is assumed, she came under the direct influence of the Utrecht Caravaggisti Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerrit van Honthorst. The influence of the Caravaggisti can be seen in subsequent night-scenes, including those executed in Haarlem, such as The Serenade (1629; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), which depicts a lute player illuminated by flickering yet unseen candlelight. The broad brushstrokes of the costume and the face also show the influence of Hals and give an illusion of monumentality to this small painting (455×350m). The upward glance of the lute player is a typical device of Leyster's. Leyster is credited with introducing a visible light source to nocturnal painting in Haarlem, for example the lit candle between a drinker and a smoker in the Last Drop (c. 1629; Philadelphia, PA, John G. Johnson priv. col.) and the lit lamp in The Proposition (1631; The Hague, Mauritshuis). In this painting, the lamplight illuminates the scene of a man offering money to a woman for her sexual favours, a style and subject common among the Caravaggisti; but Leyster's woman does not appear to be a courtesan, nor is she encouraging this overture, unlike a copy of the work (ex-Amédée Provost priv. col.; sold Brussels, 20 June 1928, lot 56) where such additional motifs as a wine-glass and a map over the woman's head imply that she is a vrouwe-wereld (Dut.: 'woman of the world'). In adapting this common theme, Leyster seems to have questioned the usual assumption of the woman as temptress. By 1633 Leyster had become a member of the Haarlem Guild of St Luke. As her admission piece she may have submitted her Self-portrait (Washington, DC, N.G.A.), which shows her seated at her easel in formal dress, wielding a palette and 18 brushes and painting a fiddler; this fiddler reappears in her Merry Company (The Netherlands, priv. col.). On 1 June 1636 she married the Haarlem genre and portrait painter jan miense Molenaer; they lived in Amsterdam until October 1648, when they moved to Heemstede. They also owned several properties in Amsterdam and Haarlem, which they seem to have rented out for additional income. They had five children between 1637 and 1650, but only two survived their parents. Leyster's Tulip pages (1643; Haarlem, Frans Halsmus.), possibly part of a tulip-bulb catalogue and executed in watercolour and silverpoint on vellum, suggest a scale and change of medium and subject that may have been more adaptable to her new domestic situation. Many paintings by Leyster are recorded in the inventory of Molenaer's possessions after his death in 1668. Included are several other still-lifes as well as many works now lost. Leyster's output after her marriage and after her children were born seems greatly reduced, although it cannot be discounted that she may have collaborated with her husband. In 16478 she was praised by Theodore Schrevel in his book on Haarlem, in which he makes a pun on her name, calling her Ley/sterr (Dut.: 'lodestar'), a 'leading star' in art. Leyster also used this pun in her monogram, formed by her conjoined initials and a star shooting out to the right. Despite praise from her contemporaries, she was not mentioned in other early sources, such as Cornelis de Bie's Het gulden cabinet, published only a year after her death, and Arnold Houbraken's Groote schouburgh of 171821. By the end of the 19th century she was virtually unknown, so much so that no works were ascribed to her. Her monogram was thought either indecipherable or, as in a court case in 1892 involving her painting the Carousing Couple (1630; Paris, Louvre), was said to contain all the letters of Hals's name. This painting of a vivid, buoyant couple drinking, smoking and making music in a canopied arbour, marks the turning-point in Leyster's reputation. Discoveries of other paintings by her followed, many previously ascribed to Hals; others, such as her masterpiece of light and still-life elements, the Young Flute Player (Stockholm, Nmus.), were once attributed to Jan de Bray. Leyster's paintings of mothers and children and women with their lovers may have served as prototypes for genre painters of the second half of the 17th century, such as Gerard ter Borch II, Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch. Also, 18th-century artists such as Alexis Grimou based some of their single half-length figures on her work. Three students are recorded in Leyster's shop: Willem Woutersz. in 1634, Davidt de Burry and Hendrick Jacobs. Although no works by them are known, it is assumed that they made many copies of her paintings. Woutersz. was also the subject of a dispute between Leyster and Hals when the latter accepted him as a student, without permission of the Guild, and when he was already in Leyster's shop. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-28)
Work Style Period:
17th century
work_styleperiod
17th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Netherlandish Renaissance-Baroque styles
work_styleperiod
Netherlandish Renaissance-Baroque styles
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
alcohol
subject
alcohol
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
recreation
subject
recreation
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
happiness
subject
happiness
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
drinking of alcoholic beverages
subject
drinking of alcoholic beverages
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
spouses
subject
spouses
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
genre
subject
genre
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
violins
subject
violins
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
musical instruments
subject
musical instruments
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
musicians
subject
musicians
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
music
subject
music
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
oil paintings
work_type
oil paintings
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
oil on canvas
Work Measurements (display):
68 cm (H) x 57 cm (W)
Work Inscription (display):
Signed; Dated
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Musee du Louvre
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Paris, France
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
public domain
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see