Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)
NÉMETH, ISTVÁN: Musical Company
the first half of the 1630s, for example a signed genre painting each at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, 49 and the Národni Galerie in Prague. 50 Another work, painted in 1630 by this artist, at a London auction in 1991, may be said to be an equally close stylistic analogy. 51 Potter's Musical Company, also from 1630, now at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, is also especially close to the Budapest picture as regards stylistic peculiarities and certain motifs (fig. 91). 52 Here, too, only a fireplace, a plain wall map and a few chairs constitute the entire furnishings of the room. The thin lace collars of the women in both pictures are painted in a shorthand manner, practically as bare outlines. And we should keep in mind that the Budapest painting under discussion has another version with nearly identical dimensions, attributed to Potter. 53 On the basis of the foregoing we may assume the Budapest Mery Company to have been painted by Pieter Symonsz. Potter himself around 1630, in which case the "Olis" signature must be a later addition. Of course, theoretically we cannot rule out the possibility that the picture after all was painted by Jan Olis who modelled it on a work executed by Potter more than ten years earlier. 54 This, however, would be quite unlikely, in view of the fact that by the mid-1640s Olis used as a rule a far greater amount of glazing in his works and, last but not least, he was creating works of higher quality. 55 ISTVÁN NÉMETH Translated by John Batki 49 Oil on panel, 37 x 47,5 cm, signed by Potter, from 1632. Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Cat. 1962. 105, No. 1679. 50 Oil on panel, 40,7 x 49,8 cm, signed by Potter, from 1631, Národni Galerie, Prague, Cat. 1912, No. 499. (photo RKD). We may consider as an other close stylistic analogy a genre picture painted by Pieter Symonsz. Potter in 1632, formerly in the collection of György Rath in Budapest, subsequently in a Paris auction: oil on panel. 33 x 42 cm, auctioned at Charpentier, Paris, 25 May 1949, No. 5 1 (photo RKD), or another work by the same artist, also from 1632: Christie's, London, 19 December 1938, No. 92. 51 Soldier on Guard Duty, with a Woman Smoking a Pipe, oil on panel, 51 x 65,2 cm, Christie's, London, 13 December 1991, No. 157. 52 Oil on panel, 34,5 x 53 cm, Inv. no. A 3338. About this picture by Potter see: Tot lering et vermaak, op. cit. (Note 11)210-211. 53 Oil on panel, 48 x 66 cm, formerly Collection Dr. H .11. frih. von Schwerin, Skarhult (Photo RKD). In this painting there is an additional figure on the right, stepping and looking out of the picture; there is no such figure in the Budapest Merry Company. 54 This would not be unprecedented in Olis' oeuvre. For example a tavern scene signed "JOlis f." (oil on panel, 42 x 53 cm, sec: Leipzig 1937, No. 56) is demonstrably a copy of a signed work by Jacob Duck. Duck's painting was auctioned at Christie's, London, 13 December 1991, No. 158. Olis was considered to be relatively wealthy, and was eventually elected mayor of Heusden, after which he left off painting. Could it be that the conservative nature of some of his works is due to the fact that they were made for his own amusement and not for commercial reasons? At any rate, the conservative character of the works by Arent de Gelder, a known student of Rembrandt's has recently been traced back to similar reasons. More recently in this connection, see: Arent de Gelder (1645-1727) Rembrandts laatste leerling, Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) - Köln (Wallraf-Richartz Museum) 1998-99. 55 See among others the kitchen interior painted by Jan Olis in 1645: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Inv. no. A 296, or a work made in the same year by the artist, recently auctioned in New York: Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1997. No. 138.
