Merry Company on a Terrace

Provenance

Mr. Bryant, Bristol; (his sale, Bristol, 27 April 1848); purchased by Humphry Willyams [1792-1872], Carnanton House, Mawgan-in-Pydar, Cornwall.[1] Joseph H. Carter [1862-1937], London, in 1896/1898 or later;[2] by descent in his family; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 April 1985, no. 43); (Richard Green Fine Art, London); sold 1985 to Maida and George Abrams, Newton, Massachusetts; purchased through (Sotheby's, New York) March 2020 by NGA. [1] _Catalogue of the Antient [_sic_] and Modern Pictures in the Collection of Humphry Willyams, Esq. at Carnanton, Cornwall_, London, 1871: 92, no. 38. According to this self-published catalogue, Willyams purchased two other paintings at the 1848 sale, and he also gives the sale date as April 23. Mr. Bryant and his sale have yet to be identified. [2] Carter was a British painting conservator, dealer, and artist. A label on the reverse of the panel includes the address (58 Bond Street) at which he appears in London trade directories, and also includes the notation of catalogue number 203. Carter was also known as J. Purves Carter, the "Purves" being his mother's maiden name. For a detailed biography, see: https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-british-picture-restorers/british-picture-restorers-1600-1950-c, accessed 28 May 2020.

Merry Company on a Terrace

Hals, Dirck

1625

Accession Number

2020.11.1

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 38.7 × 51.5 cm (15 1/4 × 20 1/4 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Credit Line

The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund

Tags

Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Panel Painting Dutch

Background & Context

Background Story

Dirck Hals (1591-1656) was a Dutch painter known for the elegant, merry company scenes that make him one of the most important genre painters of the early Dutch Golden Age. Merry Company on a Terrace from 1625 depicts a group of elegantly dressed figures on a terrace in the elegant, colorful manner that distinguishes Hals's best work from the more restrained genre painting of his contemporaries. The 1625 date places this in Hals's most productive period, when he was producing the elegant, merry company scenes that are his most accomplished works, and the terrace subject shows his talent for depicting the refined leisure of the Dutch upper class.

Cultural Impact

Merry Company on a Terrace is important in the history of Dutch genre painting because it demonstrates the elegant, colorful manner that Dirck Hals brought to merry company scenes as one of the most important genre painters of the early Dutch Golden Age. Hals's merry company scenes—depicting the refined leisure of the Dutch upper class with the elegant composition and colorful manner that are his most distinctive contributions—represent one of the most important traditions in early Dutch genre painting, and the 1625 painting shows this tradition at its most elegant.

Why It Matters

Merry Company on a Terrace is Dirck Hals's elegant Dutch genre: a group of elegantly dressed figures on a terrace rendered in the colorful manner of one of the most important genre painters of the early Dutch Golden Age. The 1625 painting shows the refined leisure of the Dutch upper class depicted with the elegant composition that makes Hals one of the most important figures in early Dutch genre painting.