Formerly attributed to Gerard Dou, this late work by Van Mieris may have been inspired by Jan Steen's nocturnal scene of carnival revelers in the National Gallery, Prague.
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Title:The Serenade
Artist:Frans van Mieris the Elder (Dutch, Leiden 1635–1681 Leiden)
Date:ca. 1678–80
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:Arched top, 5 3/4 x 4 3/8 in. (14.6 x 11.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Lillian S. Timken, 1959
Accession Number:60.71.3
This small panel was little known before its publication in the early 1980s and its frequent display from that period onward. The picture was evidently brought to America by the celebrity Lola Montez (1821–1861), whose lover King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786–1868) is said to have owned it before her. This would have made the painting unknown to the leading connoisseurs of Dutch art who flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, until one of them, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, was consulted somewhat before or in connection with the New York sale of 1927. His certificate endorsing the picture's attribution to Gerrit Dou was not overruled until Naumann (1981) included the work in his catalogue raisonné of paintings by Dou's most accomplished pupil, Frans van Mieris. The picture's style and figure types (especially the woman) are entirely consistent with Van Mieris's later work. Naumann convincingly dates the painting to about 1678–80.
Naumann suggests plausibly that this work is identical with a painting by Van Mieris listed in the inventory of the Diego Duarte collection, compiled in Antwerp and dated July 12, 1682. The Duarte picture is described as "Een nacht met vier figuren, een keerslicht en lanternlicht, maenschyn, seer curieus" (A night [scene] with four figures, a candle torch and a lantern light, moonlight, very curious). Hofstede de Groot cited this document in 1928, but evidently missed its connection with the "Dou" he had seen somewhat earlier.
Naumann compares the work with Jan Steen's Serenade of about 1675–78 (Národní Galerie, Prague), noting compositional as well as thematic similarities in the two torchlit scenes. The painting by Van Mieris's close associate in Leiden shows costumed figures ringing the doorbell of a stately town house and serenading the secluded occupants. The subject, with specific commedia dell'arte players, is known from earlier French prints. The figures in Van Mieris's painting must also be actors making nocturnal rounds from house to house. The change from loud revelers on a Dutch sidewalk in Steen's picture to the rather disturbing personages in the Museum's shadowy scene is typical of Van Mieris.
A contemporary copy was on the art market in 1995.
[2013; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
?Diego Duarte, Amsterdam (until 1682; his estate inventory, July 12, 1682, no. 89, valued at fl. 403); ?Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, Munich; ?Lola Montez, Munich, later U.S.A.; ?Mrs. Dana, Boston; ?Dr. George Reuling, Baltimore; Dr. John Edwin Stillwell, New York (until 1927; his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, December 1, 1927, no. 236, as by Dou, for $1,450 to Timken); Mr. and Mrs. William R. Timken, New York (1927–49); Mrs. William R. (Lillian S.) Timken, New York (1949–d. 1959)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
F. Muller. Oude Tijd. 1870, p. 400 [see Refs. Hofstede de Groot 1928 and Naumann 1981], publishes the July 12, 1682 estate inventory of the collection of Diego Duarte, where no. 89, possibly this picture, is listed as "Een nacht met vier figuren en een lanterne keers en maenlicht. capitaal en curieus," and appraised at fl. 403.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 10, Stuttgart, 1928, p. 63, no. 235, records a picture, possibly this one, as "Nachtstück," by Frans van Mieris, in the collection of Diego Duarte, Amsterdam, in 1682.
John Canaday. "Flip of Coin Helps Divide Fortune in Art." New York Times (May 15, 1960), p. 77.
Otto Naumann. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. Doornspijk, 1981, vol. 1, pp. 83–84, 188; vol. 2, pp. 122–23, no. 117, pl. 117, as by Frans van Mieris; dates it about 1678–80; relates it to the painting listed as no. 89 in the 1682 estate inventory of Diego Duarte; compares it with Jan Steen's "The Serenade" (Národni Galeri, Prague).
Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 187, as by Frans van Mieris.
Thierry Beherman. Godfried Schalcken. [Paris], 1988, p. 367, no. 353, ill., mentions Naumann's attribution to Van Mieris, and former attributions to Dou and Schalcken.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 339, ill.
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 481–83, no. 123, colorpl. 123, finds Naumann's dating of about 1678–80 [see Ref. 1981] convincing.
Old Masters. Sotheby's, London. May 2, 2018, p. 74, under no. 122.
A certificate by Hofstede de Groot endorsing the attribution to Dou accompanied the painting when it was sold in 1927.
On the back of the panel are five red seals and one larger green seal, all undeciphered.
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