Signed and dated (upper right, on lintel): TDK [monogram] 1629
De Keyser was the most prominent portraitist in Amsterdam until Rembrandt arrived there in the early 1630s. Both painters employed narrative ideas—here, probably, that of a music lesson—to animate the figures and to balance the concentration upon costume details. De Keyser, however, never tempered his penchant for precise patterns, which in this case exquisitely compensates for the artist's characteristically awkward perspective scheme.
The musical instrument depicted is a theorbo, a type of long-necked lute. The bust over the doorway may represent Minerva.
Gunhild Osterman, Librarian of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, writes in a letter of October 1, 1965, that the information in the Christie's catalogue of the King sale of 1935 is inaccurate. She states that the "Malmö Museum cannot identify the painting as ever having been exhibited in the museum. The copy in our photographic archive states that the painting was exhibited in Stockholm in 1926 [underlined] (not in 1933 as stated in the Christie catalogue). However, there is no gallery mentioned . . . ." [this letter cannot be found; 5/3/06]
[Nikolaus Steinmeyer, Cologne, until 1911; sold to Kleinberger]; [Kleinberger, Paris, 1911–12; sold to Knoedler]; [Knoedler, New York and London, 1912–20; sold to Antik]; [A. B. Antik, Stockholm, from 1920]; Osborn Kling, Stockholm (by 1928–35; his sale, Christie's, London, June 28, 1935, no. 39, for £483 to Cumming); [Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, until 1935/36; sold to private collection, Vienna]; private collection, Vienna, later Greenwich, Conn. (1935/36–64; seized in Paris by the Nazis, held at Munich collecting point and restituted; given by owner to MMA; life interest, 1964–d. 1984)
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.
Rudolf Oldenbourg. Thomas de Keysers Tätigkeit als Maler. Leipzig, 1911, p. 73, no. 32, as "Familienbild," whereabouts unknown; states that it was in an exhibition in Berlin in 1890.
Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters the Property of Herr Osborn Kling of Stockholm. Christie's, London. June 28, 1935, p. 11, no. 39, ill. opp. p. 11, as "A Musician and his Daughter"; lists inaccurate exhibition history [see Notes].
Larousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art. New York, 1964, p. 256, fig. 620.
[Claus Virch]. Paintings in the Collection of Charles and Edith Neuman de Végvár. [New York], [1970], p. 12.
E. Bénézit. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs. new ed. Paris, 1976, vol. 6, p. 206, mistakenly lists the Kling sale of 1935 as an anonymous sale.
Ann Jensen Adams. "The Paintings of Thomas de Keyser (1596/7–1667): A Study of Portraiture in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 149–51; vol. 3, p. 53, no. 24, p. 175, under no. U-12, calls it "Portrait of a Young Girl, with a Man Holding a Cittern" and refers to it as the artist's "strangest work"; sees no family relationship between the two figures and suggests that the subject might be a double portrait of a girl and her music teacher, an amateur musician and family friend; tentatively identifies the bust over the doorway as Minerva; notes the historical interest of the depiction of the instrument case; discusses the pose of the man at length; suggests that the MMA work might be identified with a picture included in a sale in Amsterdam on April 20, 1695 (no. 23, "Een Man met een Luyt, van H. Keyser").
Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 184, calls it "charming," but doubts that it depicts a father and daughter.
Peter C. Sutton in Ben Broos. "Recent Patterns of Public and Private Collecting of Dutch Art." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1990, p. 105.
Walter Liedtke in Masterworks from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1992, p. 102 n. 5.
Renate Trnek. Die holländischen Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts in der Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien. Vienna, 1992, pp. 200–201 n. 7, fig. 66a.
Walter Liedtke et al. Vermeer and the Delft School. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2001, p. 345, compares it with Jan Steen's "A Burgher of Delft and His Daughter" (now Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) as an image of "a commendable parent, setting an example for his child".
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. x, 393, 400–403, no. 100, colorpl. 100; vol. 2, p. 592.
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 71, fig. 82 (color, MMA Vermeer gallery photograph).
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