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Source Description
The Utrecht artist Gerrit van Honthorst was internationally known as a portrait painter, but he also gained a reputation as a painter of raucous musical scenes and parties. This drawing was once part of an album of compositional types that the artist showed to prospective patrons. Though the cheerful theme of a man and a woman sharing a song seems innocent, such unions often had amorous or lascivious connotations in 17th-century Holland.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
329320
label
Musical Scene
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
329320
contentType
drawing
title
Musical Scene
description
The Utrecht artist Gerrit van Honthorst was internationally known as a portrait painter, but he also gained a reputation as a painter of raucous musical scenes and parties. This drawing was once part of an album of compositional types that the artist showed to prospective patrons. Though the cheerful theme of a man and a woman sharing a song seems innocent, such unions often had amorous or lascivious connotations in 17th-century Holland.
date
1625–55
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79876012
creators
2747
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Support: 23.3 x 26.8 x 0.3 cm (9 3/16 x 10 9/16 x 1/8 in.); Image: 17.3 x 20.2 cm (6 13/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
cul
Netherlands
accession
2019.6
Source extras
tec
black ink wash over pen and brown ink and black chalk over graphite on gray-brown paper with white heightening, incised
tombstone
Musical Scene, 1625–55. Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1590–1656). Black ink wash over pen and brown ink and black chalk over graphite on gray-brown paper with white heightening, incised; support: 23.3 x 26.8 x 0.3 cm (9 3/16 x 10 9/16 x 1/8 in.); image: 17.3 x 20.2 cm (6 13/16 x 7 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2019.6
collection
DR - Dutch
inscriptions
inscription
inscribed “no 27” in black chalk, lower right on antique laid tan textured paper
inscription_remark
The hand and medium of “no 27” matches a Honthorst drawing in the Rijksmuseum (RP-T-2015-52) suggesting common origin in an album
didYouKnow
In 17th-century Holland, scenes of men and women playing music together often had amorous connotations.
citations
citation
Peters, Emily. “Acquisitions 2019: Drawings.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 20-21.
page_number
Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 21.
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:56:31.956000
sourceId
329320
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - Dutch
med
black ink wash over pen and brown ink and black chalk over graphite on gray-brown paper with white heightening, incised
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
fe8c9d618e0cebb9