PIETER CODDE (Amsterdam 1599 – Amsterdam 1678)
A Musical Company
signed with conjoined initials PC on the book in the lower left
oil on panel
12.2 x 16 inches (31 x 40.6 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, March 7, 1961, lot 62, illustrated
Anonymous sale, Lempertz, Cologne, May 17, 1962, lot 40, illustrated
H. Terry-Engell Gallery, London, 1962
Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, 1963
Kunsthandel St. Lucas, The Hague, 1964
J. Vermeulen, art dealer, The Hague, Fall, 1964
Anonymous sale, Van Marle & Bignell, The Hague, December 17, 1964, lot 48, illustrated
Galerie Müllenmeister, Solingen, Germany, 1965
Anonymous sale, Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, November 16, 2007, lot 684, illustrated
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, New York, January 25, 2008, lot 365, illustrated
Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 2009
EXHIBITED
London, H. Terry-Engell Gallery, Exhibition of fine paintings of the seventeenth century Dutch, Flemish and French schools, November – December 1962, no. 9
Vienna, Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Herbstausstellung 1963, until December 21st, no. 4
Delft, Museum Het Prinsenhof, Oude Kunst – en Antiekbeurs, June 1964, with Kunsthandel St. Lucas
Maastricht, TEFAF, March 2009, with Kunsthandel P. de Boer
LITERATURE
Exhibition of fine paintings of the seventeenth century Dutch, Flemish and French schools, H. Terry-Engell Gallery, London, November – December 1962, no. 9, illustrated
Apollo, volume 76, 1962, p. 707, illustrated
Art Quarterly, volume 25, no. 4,Winter 1962, p. 399, illustrated
Herbstausstellung 1963, Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, Autumn until December 21, 1963, no. 4
Gemälde und Zeichnungen alter Meister: Collection, Galerie Müllenmeister, Solingen, 1965, p. 6, illustrated
Dr. Walther Berndt, certificate dated Munich October 10, 1966, in which he states…“This painting is a flawless, characteristic and very well preserved work by the Amsterdam genre painter Pieter Codde” …
Jochai Rosen, “Pieter Codde and the Industry of Copies in 17th-century Dutch Painting” in The Primacy of the Image in Northern European Art, 1400 – 1700: Essays in Honor of Larry Silver, Leiden, 2017, pp. 565 – 566, figure 42
Jochai Rosen, Pieter Codde (1599 – 1678) Catalogue Raisonné, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2020, pp. 106, 200, no. 37 illustrated, pp. 201-202, 265, no. 37, illustrated (as whereabouts unknown)
Pieter Codde was born to a prominent middle-class family in Amsterdam who throughout his life provided moral and financial support for his career. Such freedom must have allowed Codde to pursue the innovations upon which his fame now rests.[1] It is unknown where and with whom he served his apprenticeship. It is assumed that sometime between 1620 – 1623 he finished his training and became an independent master focusing on portraits and genre. He immediately undertook the modernization of the picturing of the Merry Company scenes that had originated in the works of Frans Hals and his followers by eliminating all traces of their “carnivalesque ambience”.[2] Instead Codde looked to his contemporaries for inspiration, depicting the gatherings of fashionably dressed young men and women of Amsterdam’s middle-class in realistic interiors. By banishing clutter, and displaying only a few pieces of furniture and objects, depicted in a restrained color scheme, these scenes gained a feeling of airiness. Such details were finely delineated “in which he was the first to meticulously depict the qualities of various materials such as fabrics and basketry and should be considered a pioneer in the brilliant depiction of satin”. As in this work, his compositions are usually asymmetrical.[3]
Jochai Rosen in his recently published catalog raisonné dates our A Musical Company to circa 1635 – 1636. The subject reflects a period in which singing was a popular amusement and newly published songbooks played a key role. Compiled for such occasions these songs mainly focused on the romantic yearnings of the young, and their search to find the ideal marriage partner. A common belief at the time was if a young man and woman could play and sing harmoniously together, they would make a good match. A further impetus to the popularity of such gatherings was the extremely cold and long winters of the 1620s and 1630s that fostered indoor activities. Known as the “Little Ice Age” canals and waterways remained frozen for months. By the 1640s with the coming of a new generation, such parties passed out of fashion in favor of more worldly pursuits.[4]
Rosen’s description of our painting is as follows, “This painting … depicts a company of men and women gathered in a room, playing music and singing. In the center a seated woman looking at a music book propped up on the table next to her plays a viola da gamba she holds in her lap. Behind the table another woman with a man standing next to her, plays a lute. Another grouping, consisting of a man and two women, stands a bit further behind on the right and sings from a music book. A large overturned basket rests on the floor next to the fireplace in the right background; more music books are placed around a stool in the foreground. One of these books bears the artist’s typical and commonly used monogram PC drawn in two bold brushstrokes … This is an exquisite and highly detailed painting typical of Codde’s work whose refined draftsmanship demonstrates he was able to create his own unique and easily identifiable characters. When encountered they strike one as an old acquaintance.”[5]
From 1628 – 1638 Codde was at the height of his creativity in his reworking of the tradition of Merry Company depictions as well as playing “a major role in the invention of the Guardroom Scene as a new genre formula.” But by 1638 Codde no longer painted Merry Company scenes for an open market. In all likelihood having achieved financial success he only took work on commission as his choice in subject matter became more random. Summarizing the artist’s career Jochai Rosen succinctly stated, “Codde was the most prolific and influential genre painter in Holland during the 1630s.”[6]
[1] Jochai Rosen, op.cit.,2020, p. 205.
[2] Ibid, p. 5.
[3] Ibid, pp. 122, 206 – 207.
[4] Benjamin B. Roberts, Sex, Drugs and Rock “N” Roll in the Dutch Golden Age, Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam, 2017, pp. 139, 145, 156 - 158.
[5] Jochai Rosen, op.cit., 2020, pp. 200 – 201.
[6] Ibid, pp. 205 – 207.