A woman playing the lute and a man listening

Eglon van der Neer belonged to a generation of genre painters that included Frans van Mieris, Jacob Ochtervelt and Caspar Netscher, each of whom was born in or around 1635 and enjoyed considerable international acclaim. While nothing can be said with certitude about his artistic training, it is believed that he trained with his father, the landscapist Aert van der Neer, and possibly also Jacob van Loo. Around 1654 van der Neer traveled to France, where he became painter to Count van Dona, the Dutch governor of the principality of Orange. He had returned to Holland by early 1659, marrying in Amsterdam on 20 February of that year. In 1664, van der Neer settled in Rotterdam and probably resided there until 1679. That year van der Neer moved to Brussels, where he remained until 1689. In 1687, he was appointed court painter to Charles II of Spain and in 1698 to the same role by the Elector Palatine, Johann Wilhelm, in Düsseldorf.

The present painting belongs to van der Neer’s early period of activity in Amsterdam. At the time of its 1999 sale, Willem van de Watering dated it to circa 1660, while in his 2010 catalogue raisonné Eddy Schavemaker proposed a similar dating of circa 1660-63 (loc. cit.). Love- and music-making were closely associated in earlier fijnschilder painting. The presence of the seated young man – intoxicated not only by smoke and drink but presumably love as well – and the brazier atop the table make clear that van der Neer likewise intended his painting to be read as such. The artist addressed this theme on several occasions throughout his career, including in a painting which dates to circa 1664-68 in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (see Schavemaker, op. cit., no. 37) and one dated 1669 in the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (see Schavemaker, op. cit., no. 45).