A Man Playing a Lute by Hendrick ter Brugghen was created in 1624. The painting is in National Gallery, London. The size of the work is 100,5 x 78,7 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
About the Work
How do you paint music? It was a challenge which fascinated many Dutch artists in the early sixteenth century, when pictures of musicians and musical parties were very popular. Here ter Brugghen focuses on a lute player lost in his art, drawing us close to his subject by using strong, dramatic lighting to highlight the folds under his eyes, the long shadows of his fingers and his shiny red nose – so red that Hendrick ter Brugghen may have been exaggerating for comic effect. Perhaps he was suggesting that the player had a few glasses of wine before launching into song. All this makes him seem more real, as though he is singing directly to us.
Such pictures of single musicians painted half-length were particularly popular among a group of painters based in Utrecht. They were know as the ‘Dutch Caravaggists’ because several, including ter Brugghen, had lived and studied in Rome and been heavily influenced by the distinctive style of Caravaggio and his followers. They imitated his dramatic lighting effects and his preference for painting his subjects close up – and copied his subject matter too. Read more in National Gallery London
About the Artist
Hendrick Jansz ter Brugghen (or Terbrugghen) (1588 – 1 November 1629) was a Dutch painter of genre scenes and religious subjects. He was one of the Dutch followers of Caravaggio – the so-called Utrecht Caravaggisti. Along with Gerrit van Hondhorst and Dirck van Baburen, Ter Brugghen was one of the most important Dutch painters to have been influenced by Caravaggio.
No references to Ter Brugghen written during his life have been identified. His father Jan Egbertsz ter Brugghen, originally from Overijssel, had moved to Utrecht, where he was appointed secretary to the Court of Utrecht by the Prince of Orange, William the Silent. He had been married to Sophia Dircx. In 1588, he became bailiff to the Provincial Council of Holland in The Hague, where Hendrick was born. Read more in Wikipedia
Order a reproduction of this work (printed on canvas)
