''The Merry Trio'' is an oil painting created in 1629 by the

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and art an ...

painter

Judith Leyster Judith Jans Leyster (also Leijster; baptised July 28, 1609Molenaer, JudithNational Gallery of Art website. Accessed February 1, 2014. – February 10, 1660) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, portraits, and still lifes. Her work was ...

. It is now in a private collection.Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland's Golden Age, by Frima Fox Hofrichter, Doornspijk, 1989, Davaco Publishers, , catalog #9 It was considered a work by

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century gro ...

until 1903.

Provenance

The painting was together with Leyster's ''

The Last Drop ''The Last Drop'' is a 2006 British-Romanian adventure war film by Colin Teague that was released Direct-to-video, direct to video. Teague teamed up with Gary Young, with whom he had previously collaborated on the British crime drama films '' ...

'' in the collection of the British dealer/auction house Sir George Donaldson (1845–1925) where it was documented in 1903. The two may be pendants, as they were then reported to have the same measurements. According to Hofrichter, the scene shows the popular ''Merry company'' theme common in 17th-century ''commedia dell'arte'' plays. This daylight scene serves as a contrast to its candlelit pendant which warns of the dangers of drinking and smoking. Clearly, Leyster preferred the sober yet festive daytime scene, because she selected the musician on the right to illustrate her

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

. It was purchased in 1988 from the Noortman collection by the Dutch businessman Eric Albada Jelgersma, and was auctioned in 2018.Auction sale record
at Christie's, where it was sold 6 December 2018 in London for GBP 1,808,750 File:Judith Leyster Merry Trio.jpg File:Judith Leyster, Dutch (active Haarlem and Amsterdam) - The Last Drop (The Gay Cavalier) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

'' (c. 1629), a possible pendant File:Self-portrait by Judith Leyster.jpg, Self-portrait with easel

References

{{ACArt 1629 paintings Paintings by Judith Leyster Musical instruments in art

Provenance

See also

References