Oil painting on panel, 'A lady being propositioned by two gentlemen', style of Jan Steen and Gerard Ter Borch, late 17th century

Two well dressed men appear to proposition an extravagantly dressed woman, one proffering her a drink, in a darkened interior furnished with a red velvet canopy bed. On the floor lays a variety of detritus including a broken clay pipe, fruit peels, oyster shells and an Ace of Hearts playing card.

Bequeathed by John M. Parsons

This work was attributed to Jan le Ducq, an artist long confused with Jacob Duck, in the 1893 Catalogue. In Kauffmann's 1973 Catalogue it was described as 'manner of Jacob Duck'
Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870

Historical significance: This type of ‘merry company’ scene, made popular during the first thirty years of the seventeenth century, recalls the works of Jan Steen and/or Gerard Ter Borch who often set their moralising geselschapjes in taverns or brothels as a playful condemnation of drunkenness, gambling and prostitution. This work is very likely a nineteenth-century copy of a work in this seventeenth century style. Indeed, Jan Steen (1626-1679) is best known for his genre scenes depicting busy interiors, often with a strongly moralising theme and frequently illustrating Dutch sayings. These cheerful and disorderly scenes themselves gave rise to the Dutch expression ‘a Jan Steen household.’ 509-1870 can be compared for example with An Interior with a Man offering an Oyster to a Woman in the National Gallery, London (NG 2559) of around
1660-5. In the 17th century oysters (traditionally a symbol of lust) were thought to be an aphrodisiac and the man's offer can be interpreted as a sexual advance. As in the V&A picture, there are several discarded oyster shells scattered around the woman's chair, perhaps an allusion to her occupation as a prostitute. Similarly, Steen often included clay pipes in his genre paintings such as The Interior of an Inn ('The Broken Eggs') (NG 5637) as objects with erotic connotations. Gerard Ter Borch (the younger) (1617-1681) specialised, from the late 1640s onwards, in small upright panels featuring figures, selectively lit against dark backgrounds, talking, drinking, making music in elegant dress. He was particularly skilled in recording the way light strikes shimmering and costly fabrics and relished painting details such as intricate gold embroidery and elaborate headdresses and though 509-1870 appears to emulate him in this respect it is much less finely painted. The National Gallery's A Woman playing a Theorbo to Two Men (NG 864) dated around 1667-8 is a good example of this. The painting is anecdotal in character, with two men present, one singing to the accompaniment of the theorbo. The association between music and love is a frequent subject in Dutch genre painting but in this work, as in many of Ter Borch's pictures, the relationship between the figures is deliberately ambiguous. The viewer is invited to decide whether is just a happy domestic scene, or, as in 509-1870, possibly a scene taking place in brothel. Another popular Dutch genre theme painted by Ter Borch was The Card Players (Johnny Van Haeften sale, London 2009), a subject which emphasize the idleness of the pastime, the stupidity or untrustworthiness of the participants or set the scene for an amorous dalliance between the sexes, and in such scenes the ace of hearts (visible on the floor of the V&A picture) often functions as a symbol of romance.

This panel is painted in the genre tradition of Dutch ‘merry companies’ or geselschapjes which were popular during the first thirty years or so of the seventeenth century. They show groups of elegantly dressed men and women eating, drinking and making music. They were inspired by Flemish biblical subjects of feasting and self-indulgence such as the ‘Prodigal Son in a Tavern’ which had moralising meanings. This moral condemnation carried over to the ‘merry companies’ which were often deliberately ‘non-realistic’ narrow spaces in which the figures appear to theatrically or emblematically ‘act out’ the scene. The Calvinist society of the Dutch Republic was disapproving of extravagant dress, idleness etc… Some of these scenes take places in taverns or brothels and allude to drunkenness, gambling and prostitution. While intended as criticisms, these pictures are generally good-natured in mood and tinged with amusement rather than puritanical condemnation.

This work was attributed to Jan le Ducq, an artist long confused with Jacob Duck, in the 1893 Catalogue. In Kauffmann's 1973 Catalogue it was described as 'manner of Jacob Duck.' Comparisons with the work of this artist however remain unconvincing and recent examination of the panel suggests that it is more likely a contemporary work in the style of Dutch genre painters Gerard Ter Borch and Jan Steen.

Two well dressed men appear to proposition an extravagantly dressed woman, one proffering her a drink, in a darkened interior furnished with a red velvet canopy bed. On the floor lays a variety of detritus including a broken clay pipe, fruit peels, oyster shells and an Ace of Hearts playing card. This type of ‘merry company’ scene, made popular during the first thirty years of the seventeenth century, recalls the works of Jan Steen and/or Gerard Ter Borch who often set their moralising geselschapjes in taverns or brothels as a playful condemnation of drunkenness, gambling and prostitution. This work is very likely a nineteenth-century copy of a work in this seventeenth century style.
It may be compared for example with Steen's An Interior with a Man offering an Oyster to a Woman in the National Gallery, London (NG 2559) ca.1660-5. In the 17th century, oysters (traditionally a symbol of lust) were thought to be an aphrodisiac and the discarded oyster shells scattered around the woman's chair may be an allusion to her occupation as a prostitute. Similarly, Steen often included clay pipes in his genre paintings as objects with erotic connotations as in The Interior of an Inn also in the National Gallery, London (NG 5637). Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681) specialised, from the late 1640s onwards, in small panels featuring figures, selectively lit against dark backgrounds, talking, drinking and making music in elegant dress and was particularly skilled in recording the way light strikes shimmering and costly fabrics. Although 509-1870 appears to emulate him in many ways, it is much less finely painted. Like Ter Borch's A Woman playing a Theorbo to Two Men (NG 864) in the National Gallery, London, 509-1870 is anecdotal in character, with two men present and the relationship between the figures is deliberately ambiguous. The viewer is invited to decide whether is just a happy domestic scene, or, possibly a scene taking place in brothel. Another comparable genre picture by Ter Borch is The Card Players (Johnny Van Haeften, London 2009), a subject which emphasises the idleness of the pastime, the stupidity or untrustworthiness of the participants or set the scene for an amorous dalliance between the sexes, in the case of the V&A picture, the ace of hearts symbolises romance.

509-1870