Image Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons, public domain
Title: Merry Company
Date: 1633
Artist: Dirck Hals, Dutch (Haarlem 1591 - 1656 Haarlem)
Description:
Depictions of lively scenes with a small group of people drinking and enjoying themselves were very popular in the 17th-century. Known as "Merry companies" or “Gezelschapjes” in Dutch art, they would decorate many interiors both in Amsterdam and New Amsterdam, bringing color and a sense of playfulness into the house.
Museum the Mauritshuis, summary: A group of friends has gathered in an interior. They are eating, drinking and flirting with one another. With their fashionable clothing and silk stockings, they are extremely flamboyant, but the painter has made their collars ridiculously wide. The young woman on the right is being enthusiastically greeted by the others in the group. The man alongside her has placed his hand possessively around her waist and exchanges a knowing look with the man standing on the left. A look that seems to say: ‘Hands off, pal’.
Location: Mauritshuis, The Hague
Artist
Dirck Hals (Haarlem 1591 - 1656 Haarlem)
Title
Merry Company
Dated
1633
Object name
painting
Inventory number
1060
Material and technical details
Oil on panel
Dimensions
30 x 51.3 cm