Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (Delft 1589-1662 The Hague)

This panel is typical of the distinct subgenre developed by Adriaen van de Venne within the Netherlandish tradition of depicting beggars and moralising proverbial images, characterised by their small-scale, witty depictions of low or peasant life, typically using a grisaille or brunaille palette, following his move to The Hague in 1625. These pictures served as metaphors for social dysfunction. The dispossessed and marginal in the seventeenth-century Netherlands were sometimes referred to as grauw (grey), the term also used for grisaille pictures. While the works drew attention to these peripheral groups, in the tradition of Bruegel and his followers, van de Venne’s paintings were also often witty or ironic in tone.

The small scroll in the upper right of the panel, a motif frequently employed by van de Venne, is inscribed ‘Fray en Leelijck’ which translates as ‘the beautiful and the ugly’. This references, perhaps ironically, the beautiful music played by the ugly musicians. As was often the case with the artist’s witty inscriptions, the motto may have had a double meaning, however, since ‘fray’ could also be understood to mean deceitful. This links the work with a similar painting by van de Venne, also depicting a blind old man and an old woman playing instruments, with a scroll inscribed Armoe Soeckt List, or Poverty leads to Cunning (Private collection; Sotheby’s, New York, 22 April 2015, lot 19).

As Westermann (op. cit.) emphasised, this subtly monochromatic work shows how masterfully van de Venne compensated for the lack of colour in his work through his careful attention to the distinction in texture across the small panel. Using thin, broad brushwork for the sackcloth, which is contrasted with the small dashes of translucent glazes, giving character to the figures’ faces and hands. The voluminous beard of the flute player is given texture by scratching into the wet paint, a technique which resembles that used by Rembrandt in his early works.