The Concert, ca. 1623

  • Dirck Van Baburen, Dutch, between 1594 and 1595-1624

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed: 41 1/2 × 52 1/2 inches (105.4 × 133.3 cm)

Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

2010.17

On View

  • European: Medieval and Renaissance W220

Department

European Painting

In 1611, Dirck Van Baburen traveled from Utrecht to Italy. He spent most of his sojourn in Rome, where, like many visiting artists, he was drawn to the radically innovative work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). Baburen responded to the late painter’s dramatic lighting and preference for realistic models in his own work, and when he returned home in 1620, he became an influential figure in a small circle of Carvaggisti painters in Utrecht. In The Concert, Baburen presents a ragtag group. Their costumes and instruments range from historic to contemporary, and the woman’s gesture of crowning the robe-clad lutenist with a floral wreath may indicate that they are a performance troupe joined by an elegant gentleman. The light that streams in from the left shimmers on his silken sleeves and the polished wood of his violin, highlighting, as well, the flushed faces of the other spirited musicians. From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)

by 1860, Prince Rohan (Vienna, Austria)

ca. 1860, gift to Dr. Alajos Paikert [1831–1914] (Budapest, Hungary)

1914, by descent to his son, Alajos de Paikert [1866–1948] (Budapest, Hungary). January 24, 2008, (Sotheby's, New York, New York, USA) Important Old Master Paintings Including European Works of Art, lot 244

2008–2010, (Adam Williams, Ltd.,New York, New York, USA)

2010–present, purchased by Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Bulletin of the DIA: Notable Acquisitions, 2000–2015, vol. 89, no. 1/4 (2015): p. 61 (ill.). Dekiert, Marcus. Musikanten in der Malerei der Niederländischen Carvaggio-Nachfolge. Munster, 2003, pp. 252–254, 290. Franits, Wayne. The Paintings of Dirck van Baburen (ca. 1592/93–1624): Catalogue Raisonné. Philadelphia, 2013, pp. 164–165, no. A35, 318, pl. 35. Old Master Paintings Including European Works of Art. Sales cat., Sotheby’s, New York, January 24-25, 2008, no. 244. Städelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main. Caravaggio in Holland: Musik und Genre bei Caravaggio und den Utrechter Caravaggisten. Munich, 2009, p. 172–173, cat. 35.

Dirck Van Baburen, The Concert, ca. 1623, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2010.17.